Money & Happiness

[walkinwood]

These grand pronouncements on Happiness are a result of statistical analysis on large groups of people. As with anything derived from statistical analysis, it doesn't address any specific Individual's response. And I think this discussion thread proves that point very well.

On the other hand, I love reading about the science of happiness. I think it gives me a lot of good things to ponder. I clicked around on the newsweek article and came across this link
TED | Talks | Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy? (video)
It is a talk by Daniel Gilbert who wrote a great book called Stumbling on Happiness. It doesn't address "how to" but talks about the scientific work being done to study what makes people happy.

Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Ignorance is bliss - you don't miss it if you've never had it. Ate margarine as a kid - didn't miss butter. Now butter is a basic requirement. Television, which i watch too much, truly is a source of great unrest and misery - if not for the sorry news one can do nothing about then for the ads designed to create desire and the programs that show lavish lifestyles as if they were the norm.

Funny thing, vacation. DW and I went to France (see my previous thread) and didn't watch much TV (a little BBC here and there), and strangely, I haven't turned on the idiot box since I returned home (4 days ago). I have no real desire to do so. In the car, I'm now listening to BBC on satellite radio, as I can't stand domestic broadcasts and their transparent spin on the news. We've also learned to eat organically-grown fruits, vegetables and meats. Finally, our vacation seems to have given us an immune system boost against the nefarious consumer culture that predominates the U.S. (not that we were ever spendthrifts, but now we just don't care to buy what everyone else has, as opposed to exercising fiscal discipline).

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

happiness: Yahoo! (pardon the commercial before the news video) basically it is a report on 1000s of shoppers blissfully camped out for 2 days to be first through the doors of new local ikea store.

 

[wcv56]

None of my few friends nor my self are happy about being poor

 

[Culture]

None of my few friends nor my self are happy about being poor

The point is not that being poor makes you happy and being rich makes you unhappy. The point is that if you are unhappy and poor (but not so poor your basic living need are not met), then becoming rich is not going to make you any happier.

There is general agreement that if you are so poor your basic living need are not met (food, clothing and shelter), that money will make you happier.

Based on my life observations, there is no doubt this is true.

 

[kcowan]

ISTR a study that showed that having money above what is needed for the basic necessities actually brought less satisfaction because it presented a world of choices of what to do with the excess and there was considerable second-guessing about whether the choices being made were the right ones.

I tend to make a decision and then move on rather than second-guess but apparently I am not typical.