Random thoughts

[Elvin]

Well you must be really satisfied with your life/enlightened to truly mean that

[Ethric]

Yes, yes I am. Not that I necessarily see why you think I ought to be based on my last post?

[Omega_Destroyer]

But just remember: Beauty fades, dumb is forever.

[Jolly Joker]

"Good looks are overrated" is a sentence in the same league as "money isn't everything", ie said by those who don't have much of it

Well, and also by those who DO have much, when they wish to appear humble. Guess it could go both ways

Well, money is DEFINITELY not everything. It's not even half of it.
But it can't hurt to HAVE both money AND good looks. I mean, if the choice is rich and good looking or poor and non-descript there isn't much of a choice really.
But I meant with OTHERS, mainly. I mean, let's face it, good looking people tend to be vain, difficult and used to things being easy for them because of their looks. As opposed to that not QUITE as good looking people seem always eager to make up for the difference, which generally makes them... um, I have to make sure I don't write something wrong here... let's say friendlier.

[darknessfood]

Wan't tomorow to come soon. A little dutch party called "carnaval" is up. 4 Days of drinking and being crazy!!!

[Jolly Joker]

Near Cologne where I live things started already yesterday.

[Milla aka. the Slayer]

Money isn't everything but it sure is something! It helps in getting things moving And for some reason they take up much more time in my life than I want them to

[Kalah]

Someone once said money can't make you happy... I bet that someone was a poor little jack@ss.

[darknessfood]

Someone once said money can't make you happy... I bet that someone was a poor little jack@ss.

[Jolly Joker]

It may have been an unhappy rich jack@ss.
If money could make you happy, all rich people would be happy - but it definitely doesn't look that way.

[Kalah]

But I'd say that financial freedom definitely gives you the opportunity to do whatever you like, which is the beginning of happiness.

[Jolly Joker]

Which clearly shows that you have not much money. Because having all the money you need to be able to do what you like is guaranteed to make you UNhappy.

[Ethric]

EVERYONE who's rich is unhappy? Wow, this changes everything!

[Kalah]

How? How does that argument make sense? I mean, there's probably a saturation point, an amount at which it doesn't really matter any more. Whether you have 10 million or 200 billion might not make that much of a difference; you're still able to choose to do pretty much whatever you want to do with your life. But I'm talking about having enough money to be financially free; enabling you to choose whether to work or not, choose exactly where to live and how to live... how is that not the building blocks to living a life in happiness? At the other end of the spectrum we have the people who live in the slums, digging for scraps of food in the garbage dump, and we have the people who have to work 12+ hours a day, maybe having to work two or three jobs to make ends meet; spending all their lives struggling, never being able to do anything else. I'm not saying none of them are happy; I'm just saying having money definitely can make you happy; in fact, I'd say having money increases the chance of making you happy.

[Jolly Joker]

Err, no.
Rich people are as unhappy as poor - sure, they can BUY more, but that's plain normal and doesn't make them happy as such BECAUSE they are used to it. Which leaves the things which can't be bought, and actually that's quite a lot.
Of course those without money have the same problems with the things that can't be bought, so the bottom line is, that richer people don't have CERTAIN problems.
However, how happy or unhappy a person is, that is completely subjective.

[Kalah]

However, how happy or unhappy a person is, that is completely subjective.

Sure, I agree there. Having money isn't guaranteed to make you happy, and everybody have their problems. Still, I'd bet my salary any day that on the whole, people who are financially free (at least relatively) are happier than those living in economic "slavery".

[Jolly Joker]

How would you compare happiness?

[Veldrynus]

Fact is that rich people are generally more satisfied with their lives. So are good looking people. Obviously, these two factors are beneficial.

Money, indeed gives you a certain degree of freedom, comfort, status and power. It has it's few drawbacks (other people's envy for example), but it's much better to have more than less. It's silly to argue about it.

Good looks is never overrated. Intelligence is.

While money (and your power, influence) that defines your social "value" and place in the human hierarchy, your looks defines your biological "value". Your "inner" skills are only important if you can convert them into the previous two.

I'm not saying that rich and good looking people are superior human beings, that need to be worshiped, but in our hierarchical system they will always take the upper positions. That's how things are.

Real happiness, is a collection of moments (the split second you realize you had done something great, and you remember the long and hard road leading to it) that fade with time, not a longer continuous period. Everyone can have such moments, rich and poor, ugly and good looking. This is what brings justice into this cruel system.

[Jolly Joker]

Fact is that rich people are generally more satisfied with their lives. So are good looking people. Obviously, these two factors are beneficial..

I wonder where you take that "fact" from? And why that is obvious?

Money, indeed gives you a certain degree of freedom, comfort, status and power. It has it's few drawbacks (other people's envy for example), but it's much better to have more than less. It's silly to argue about it.
.

The talk is about happiness.

Happiness is something completely subjective - something that makes one person happy is irrelevant for another.
Extremely important to keep in mind is, that things you are used to are not considered special and won't make you happy.
Easy example: health. Everyone who is born healthy and doesn't get a serious desease isn't happy about that. Of course that changes as soon as you have had a serious desease and manage to become healthy again. Suddenly things look different.
This principle is valid for everything else because there are no comparisons.
Easy examples: COMPARED to the majority of people that has lived and does live on this planet many Europeans and Americans NOW are obscenely rich: they can waste food, don't need to walk when they want to go somewhere, have a water supply ready and so on PLUS they have a lot of completely spare time they use for things like watching movies, surfing the web, going on a holiday and so on.
Still most people wouldn't say they are happy.

[Kalah]

How would you compare happiness?

I wouldn't. I would simply assume that a person who is free to spend all his time doing exactly what he wants is happier than a person forced to spend all his time doing what he has to do to survive.