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- Gonbad-E Qavous
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Can Money Buy Happiness?
Maybe more cash does make people happier. Especially salient are analyses done by University of Pennsylvania economists Daniel Sacks, Betsey Stevenson, and Justin Wolfers. In their updated 2010 study, “Subjective Well-Being, Income, Economic Development and Growth,” the three compare subjective well-being survey data from 140 countries with those countries' income and economic growth rates. The researchers find that within individual countries richer people are happier than poorer; people in richer countries are happier than people in poorer countries; and over time increased economic growth leads to increased happiness. “These results together suggest that measured subjective well-being grows hand in hand with material living standards,” they conclude..
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Linda Taylor 50+
natasha nikulina 50+
Actually , it is not ' true' or ' untrue ' picture , it is not a picture, it's an interface. Click an icon and it starts to unfold.
What is survival ?
Who/what is striving to survive ?
Survive for what ?
....and it's only the beginning :)
pat gilbert 50+
Survival of an individual is a yes or no? Who is surviving? the individual. Real simple?
The individual can choose to survive through a family, a group, animals etc. One of the individuals Linda is talking about is very concerned about continuing the family name. Some choose to see that their group survives by participating in group activities such as politics or helping with the community. Some choose to see to that animal survive through PETA or similar. Some want to see the earth survive and are concerned with environmental efforts.
Sounds like I bumping into a lot of memes?
natasha nikulina 50+
In fact, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, is memes' breeding place, one of them.
It shows how social structure realizes the power of its own possibilities. According to this masterpiece , a human is a 3D animal inside a social structure. And maybe you are right, the idea of individual happiness fits to the hierarchy of needs of an individual, by its own definition of individual.
And 'individual' is...?
The same Ego, it's dressed better.
The word ' individual ' was coined in early 15 c. and meant " one and indivisible " What ???
Just think about it , if it is not 600 years old meme, i don't know what it is .
pat gilbert 50+
All but the most obtuse realizes that the individual does not prosper at the expense of another.
"Social Structure" is built from the bottom up by the individual, only government allows the opposite which is really an illusion.
Maslow's observation is rather perfunctory in comparison to what I'm pointing to.
The individual is an aggregate which includes other life. The individual who survives better (again not a yes or no) is connected to all life.
When push comes to shove what is the one thing that all life absolutely does above ANYTHING else? IT SURVIVES and not just for itself.
Why so much interest in sex? survival
Why avoidance of pain? survival
Why so much interest in money? survival
Why is the worst crime a crime against children? survival
Why are doctors so well paid? survival
Why so much interest in species on the verge of extinction? survival
Why is mom the most endearing? survival
Why so much interest in food? survival
Do you see a pattern here?
natasha nikulina 50+
Happiness is acquired on the way while achieving your goals. Your goals is the way you choose to survive. No goals to achieve, no happiness , no will to survive.
Did i restate you right ?
pat gilbert 50+
A woman has a baby she is happy, why? a goal is met the goal is toward better survival as a family
A war ends, a nation is exhilarated, why? because a goal is met which better survival as a nation
A student is accepted to a college he is happy, why? because the new skills will be more survival for the student and his family
A nation is saddened by the death of JFK, because it is less survival for the nation.
Man lands on the moon the whole world is happy, why? because this is better survival for the whole world.
The Bengal Tiger is brought back from the verge of extinction everyone is happy why? because of more survival for the animal kingdom.
A fellow invents a way for crops to be grown more rapidly and of a better quality, people on the verge of starvation are happy, why? because they will survive better and the goal of keeping a nation's people alive is met.
ALL GOALS ARE AIMED AT BETTER/MORE SURVIVAL of the individual, his family, his group, mankind, plants and animals, the earth, spirituality, and God even though the last 2 survive no matter what.
Even Hitler wanted better survival except his ideas were insane.
natasha nikulina 50+
For the majority of human' successful survivors " tigers exist in abstract, why not to be happy ? Frankly, i don't think they care.
Those few who really can entertain this kind of happiness are not in the major league of the ' survival ' sport.
"The individual is an aggregate which includes other life. The individual who survives better is connected to all life.
IT SURVIVES and not just for itself."
What is " all life" ?
Isn't " the individual who survives better " a glorious conqueror of nature ,destroyer of the planet ?
It's funny, you think, that for some reason i deny the obvious; i think that , if only i could explain properly my point you would agree ... maybe :)
let me try ...
What i mean by 'ego' is not a mean selfish greedy person, it is much more than that.
Think about ' Ego' as the operating system in our common brain computer, we are all using. It supports everything you've listed from sex to food and much more . We have been in the business of up grating our hardware for the millennia of human history.It's made our ego-system stronger and more powerful. And now we approaching the edge, if new operating system is not installed, all human enterprise will go down the tube.
You hear here and there : we need a paradigm shift ' , it's become a media cliche, but it's true, it is not strongly enough put. We need to get out of the current operating system, to crack the code , if you will.
Social structure is a mass hallucination ; "the individual who survives better " imagined itself being two with 'all life'. It's neurotic entity inside a neurotic culture, who cuts the tree it is sitting on. Successful people is primary evidence for the need for a major paradigm shift in the whole way their mentality does ' survival ' business.
natasha nikulina 50+
Let me try again ... :)
Your life is not quite yours, it's ' all life' that goes through you. Birth and death are just the formalities of existence, we shouldn't bother too much about our personal survival.
We are here to celebrate LIFE, 'all life'. What makes individual is fear to loose the illusion of separate life that may come to an end and sure, will, but if you feel like being all over the place , you have no chance to loose life, hence no fear.
I know it sounds like a pie in the sky, but it's actually the practical pattern for real survival. I think, we should try to feel that way. Computers have this blessed button " SAVE " Ta- daaaa ! :) Everything will parish, what will survive is our human capacity to love, to care, to experience joy and gratitude for being, just being.
Btw. i am not religious, have never practiced any religion.
I am not preaching ...or am i ?
Anyway, hanks for your time and attention ! :)
pat gilbert 50+
I read your post twice. As near as I can tell you are talking about the mind?
With it's attendant memes and other mechanisms of which there are many more, I don't disagree that 2.0 does a lot of good, but the psychs are not the vehicle, based off of the empirical evidence of their handy work. However that is a different subject.
I'm talking about natural law that transcends the rest.
natasha nikulina 50+
thank you for the effort, i do appreciate it .
If i tell you that the ' natural law' was not given, but was developed on the way, you won't believe me and sure, you shouldn't. :)
Thanks for the conversation!
Best to you !
pat gilbert 50+
natasha nikulina 50+
Matter is primary, brain is tissueary ...the information is secondary.. (.? )
Actually, nothing is primary neither secondary, it's concrescence.
The medieval mind was perfectly familiar with ' as above so below', hence the alchemical law : the form shapes the essence , the essence dictates the form.
There are no basic fundamental laws, they were developed on the way. Mind creates reality with all its laws. Maybe what is really real is 2D field of information or maybe it's the last sanctuary for a rational mind and doesn't exist either.
Having ' natural law' in mind, we inhabit the universe which we are not supposed to understand and which cares nothing for us , we simply should be damn lucky to be here and SURVIVE .
I don't think so :)
pat gilbert 50+
I said earlier that man is an aggregate. Part of the aggregate is the soul. I don't believe as the Christians that we have a soul, I believe we is one. And that we are cause and the universe is effect. For evidence of this look at how man creates in the universe we were not conceived by mud.
I also believe that the universe is an illusion, and that the only truth is us and God and we are not a part of this universe we are just visiting.
And this is where your psychobabble fails you.
natasha nikulina 50+
Pat, may i remind you, that reading is an act of rapid guessing and when typing you don't express your thoughts, you describe them.
Anyway, sorry for missing your point.
"...we are not a part of this universe we are just visiting."
I would say,
we are the universe we are visiting.
Maybe here is the rub ? :)
pat gilbert 50+
natasha nikulina 50+