tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post6030316102426554548..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: A Summary of Recent Research on Money and HappinessJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-58489889984386986962016-03-10T09:22:39.868-05:002016-03-10T09:22:39.868-05:00Lincoln: Most folks are about as happy as they mak...Lincoln: Most folks are about as happy as they make up their mind to be.<br />I've been high and low. Humans seem to need something to worry about. Take away their true problems and they will find something to worry about. Having nursed several relatives at the end of their lives, I concluded that 'Free Floating Anxiety' is fairly normal in the elderly. It is a rare person who can 'Let go and let G-d'.Susihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08491909280925749677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-6168471886790216092016-03-09T18:55:30.914-05:002016-03-09T18:55:30.914-05:00If you look at how ‘happy’ people say they are rig...<i>If you look at how ‘happy’ people say they are right now the relationship is weaker. One large study found people in countries with average incomes of $32,000 were only 10% happier with their lives than those in countries with average incomes of just $2,000; another within the US could find no effect above a $40,000 income for a single person.</i><br /><br />Well hold on now. Does this take into account cost of living at all? Because that same $2000 USD per year goes a heck of lot further in places with lower cost of living, such as India and the like.<br /><br />Definitely I feel like our overall global approach to money, labor, and the quest for happiness is pretty fundamentally flawed, so most of what this study is saying rings true for me. It also reinforces my own personal experiences having lived in both a very high upper middle class situation for one part of my life, and a near poverty one at another time entirely.<br /><br />An abundance of money certainly makes many, many things much, much easier for those who have it - but it also doesn't really make you happy or fulfilled. Money is a powerful tool for removing obstacles in your path, but if you're walking down the wrong road entirely, that doesn't really matter in helping you reach your intended destination.<br /><br />I'd actually draw strong parallels to mental health, oddly enough. There are lots of tools you can use to make it easier for you to be healthy mentally - having increased convenience and reduced stress in your lifestyle, having access to certain drugs which can rebalance your brain chemistry, having access to psychiatric therapy - but ultimately if you as an individual don't have the proper motivation to change your own attitude and worldview, none of those things will matter. Antidepressants don't magically get rid of depression for you, for example - they simply make it easier for you to fight against it yourself.<br /><br />Money is the same way. It's a tool that can make achieving your own happiness easier, but it can't magically create happiness for you. Everyone is solely responsible for their own happiness, and if you fail to properly seek it out, all the money in the world won't do you any good.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com