Having nothing to back this up other than observation, I think happiness is much more related to community than it is to wealth. Unfortunately, the wealthiest countries seem to lack or even have destroyed community. By community I am meaning that you know and have an investment in your neighbours and your neighbourhood. Their well-being contributes to your well-being.
Troy
Carrol Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
joanna bujes wrote:
>
> At 02:53 PM 04/02/2003 -0800, you wrote:
> >There is a minor branch of economic (twig?) that studies the determinants
> >of happiness. Happiness does not seem to increase once a society reaches
> >about $15,000 a year. Happiness instead is determined by relative status.
>
> Economists are clueless. To quote Krishnamurti, "If you want to be happy,
> take drugs." Otherwise, if you want to be free and conscious, you need to
> deal with reality. In reality we are all connected and though some of us
> may grow rich at the expense of others, being rich doesn't actually bring
> happiness since you are then fated to spend the rest of your life living in
> fear. (Though the U.S. is a relatively rich country, it is also one of the
> miserable and anxious countries I've ever lived! in.)
>
> Pradoxically, you only really have those things you are willing to share.
>
> Joanna
This is perilously close to the Platonic/Stoic conception of a "true"
happiness that is independent of circumstances. There has been very
little ever published on the private lives of the _real_ rich (those who
can live sumptuously off of capital and, if they 'work,' work for the
fun of it), but what little ever has been published suggests that they
are a very content, very unanxious, and very happy group of people.
Carrol
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