Wealth is Relative

[John Kilduff]

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I'm sorry, but in my opinion, anyone whose happiness about having an 80" LCD TV changes to unhappiness as soon as a 100" version comes out, would probably benefit from psychological counseling.

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And yet, people's happiness about things does change when new things come out.

Would you be happy with a 12" B&W TV?

And yet, 50 years ago you would have been.

The same thing applies to CRT monitors... and pretty much everything.

Someone said he's happy with a "decent" car. But what is a decent car?

There was a time when a car without A/C, heat, power steering, or even a starter system that didn't depend on standing outside the car and turning a crank was "decent." (Even marvelous.) But that's not the case anymore.

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Oh, come on. I have two good LCD monitors which I purchased a couple of years ago, and I AM very happy with them despite the fact that even better and larger models have since come on the market. I have a good solid GM car and I AM happy with it despite the fact that it is far from new and there are many more spiffy models available.

Anyone who becomes truly unhappy with a very nice thing as soon as something a little bit better hits the market has a genuine psychological problem, in my opinion. I don't know the name for it, but that is not quite normal. A minor or fleeting thought about the new model being nicer is one thing, but becoming unhappy with something you were really happy about...??? If the improvement as a new model is huge that is a different matter, but an 80" LCD TV versus a 100" inch LCD TV - if the 80" isn't plenty good enough for you (or for anyone else) to be happy with - I am really left near speechless at this point.

Well, I guess I am done with this thread. I thought I had heard everything but I guess I hadn't [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ... To each his own, as they say...thanks for reading and responding to my posts, and no insults intended...a mindset such as you describe is just very foreign to my way of thinking...

[bobman0330]

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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.

[boracay]

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OK, I'm sorry, but this is so obviously untrue that your belief in it just makes you seem insane to me. Every day when thinking about things that are wrong with my life I think "well, at least I have toilet paper" or "at least I'm not slaving in the hot sun all day" or "wow, I sure love that I live in a time where I have running water" or "gee, this refrigerated food sure is great" or "man, people must have been so bored without television and video games".

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Yeah, I do too. It's an example of how one's satisfaction with one's life is relative - it's based on who or what you compare your life to.

By consciously comparing your life to those whose lives are worse than yours, you make your own life seem better.

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So you agree that we're happier than people 500 years ago. Thanks.

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alex, i believe you misunderstood what he's trying to say.
i believe wealth is just one factor here (as he's trying to say when compared to the others/other societies).

i believe there are many societies including most primitive societies on the planet today, where people (in average again) are happy just about as an average american.

sure, probably noone today believes he would be living happier life 500 years ago rather than today. but using the same principle - noone would like to live in the present if there would be time machine capable of sending them 100 years in the future, when society will be much wealthier.
so, how many people would take this opportunity? i'd say probably about the same percent as if you would ask the same question 500 years ago.

happiness consists not in having many things, but in needing few.

[hmkpoker]

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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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There's also the factor of novelty. Currently, it's really cool to have a next-gen video game system, and the last generation (PS2, Gamecube, XBox) isn't as much fun anymore. Imagine that a legislation were passed that forbids the production of new kinds of gaming consoles. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are allowed to keep making their PS3, XBox 360 and Wii, and any games, for as long as they want, but they can't create, say, a PS4. What's gaming going to be like in 20 years? Is the PS3 still going to be fun, even when there is no "new thing" on the horizon?

[AlexM]

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And I'm not comparing myself to anyone.

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Except to people who've been dead 500 years, and to people who haven't been born yet.

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Nope, not comparing myself to them. Hell, living for 300 years may not EVER be possible. How can I be comparing myself to people who don't/may never exist?

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in the future people might live to be 300 years old, and so I am less happy

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They're your words, not mine.

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Yep. Those are the words where I'm not comparing myself to anyone.

I have a question for you. Why do you insist that I meant something I didn't when I said something? Don't you think I know what I meant better than you do? Just because you can't understand what I'm saying doesn't mean that I'm saying something else entirely that you do understand.

[hmkpoker]

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happiness consists not in having many things, but in needing few.

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QFMFT!