Re: Wealth is Relative
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There are two problems with this example. The first is that is supposes a person who has a subjective experience on happiness can somehow be wrong. What is happiness, besides a subjective experience? How can you be unhappy, if you don't realize that you are? (Doesn't unrealized unhappiness = not unhappy?)
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As I mentioned, it's basically impossible to choose between the two interpretations because happiness is subjective. I'm not positing that people are sad or not very happy and don't realize it. That would be silly. I'm suggesting that people know they are only moderately happy, feel only moderately happy, but report that they are very happy, because they are using a scale that only goes from sad to moderately happy. Imagine you grew up in a village where women only had A or B cups. If you saw a women with a C cup, you would rate her a 10 (if that's your thing). But someone from LA might rate her only a 7. The scales change based on your experience. Or maybe the degree of happiness caused by C cups is changing... it's impossible to tell.
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The other is that it supposes that a 80" LCD HDTV makes you happy. It makes you happy - at most- until a 100" LCD HDTV comes out. Just as the 1950's person was happy with his B&W TV only until the color ones came out.
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I don't agree with that. Watching HDTV creates specific happy sensations that B&W TV wouldn't. The size thing is probably more of a comparative/status type, and might well erode as TVs get bigger.
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