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The Forum > Article Comments > The future isn't what it used to be > Comments

The future isn't what it used to be : Comments

By Philip Coggan, published 2/1/2014

Does being rich make you happy, as a country? Or does getting richer make you happier?

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Not quite sure what the point of this article was - a few sources on some of the stats might help
Posted by Rhian, Thursday, 2 January 2014 4:08:14 PM
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"This lack of materialism is bad for us - how's the economy going to grow and out national happiness increase if we don't get out there and buy, impelled by the feeling that our neighbours at sneering at us for our tiny TVs and last-year cars? So make it your aim in 2014 to consume like there's no tomorrow."

Thus spake Satan!

(Graham, I know you regularly get David Singer to write for OLO, but I was not aware that you have such good connections down under to have the boss write us in person)
Posted by Yuyutsu, Thursday, 2 January 2014 5:45:35 PM
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The reason why the world is so poor is the fractional reserve system of banking. Banks create loans that are 10 times their deposits and give special deals to their mates. Thus we have a few elites owning most of the wealth on this planet.

Note the Rothschilds, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs get ignored in the super wealthy stakes because they make people like Bill Gates look like paupers.
Posted by Arjay, Thursday, 2 January 2014 7:24:07 PM
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Arjay, I look forward to the day when the Rothchilds and their obese parasitical ilk are marched up the steps of a guillotine or some modern equivalent and lose their heads and their ill-gotten fortunes in one quick, clean cut.

It must happen in the not too distant future. We can't have these greedy constipated germs flaunting their obscene wealth in our faces forever especially when they make their money via cunning schemes, dubious ventures, fraudulent tax rorts, and bought Governments.

Ah, yes, their day of reckoning is approaching. Greed will be punished down to the last banker and speculator. The proles will see to that!

Greed will become a dirty word!
Posted by David G, Thursday, 2 January 2014 7:54:58 PM
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If there is one thing I have learned over the course of my life, it's the need to UNlearn all that crap about money not bringing happiness.

I have proved beyond any doubt - though not under scientifically controlled laboratory conditions - that money does indeed bring happiness. It brings a whole heap of happy conditions into one's life that poverty simply does NOT - freedom, independence, comfort, security, health, stimulation, adventure, nice surroundings, respect, friends (yes, maintaining friendships costs money - nothing isolates you more than poverty) and, most of all, the joy of never receiving final notices oozing with red print.

Yet we are sternly lectured from cradle to grave - mostly by those whose financial circumstances are insufferably secure - that the best things in life are free, even though every life experience other than breathing has a price on it (and, in some cases, even breathing too). And articles like this one continue to act surprised that all the research actually reverses this conventional non-wisdom by actually showing statistical correlations between wealth and money, and between poverty and misery.

I guess the whole point of 'money doesn't bring happiness' propaganda is to shame us into thinking that wealth is not important to anyone other than the rich, whose very wealth depends on the poverty of many.
Posted by Killarney, Thursday, 2 January 2014 7:59:07 PM
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Greed will become a dirty word!
David G,
Exactly my sentiment also, there are signs of this happening already.
Posted by individual, Thursday, 2 January 2014 8:06:07 PM
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David G and individual

Only the poor are ever punished for being greedy. With the exception of an isolated scapegoat or two to appease the gods of justice, the rich will not only remain immune from retribution for their greed, they will continue to be amply rewarded for it.
Posted by Killarney, Thursday, 2 January 2014 8:18:16 PM
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Killarney,
Yes, that's how it has been & still is for time being but as there are more & more poor there will be some kind of revolution before long. Governments really need to wake up & stop fleecing us. The enterpreneureal rich will always be better off than most but where I think the crap will hit the fan is within the public service. That lot is taking most of our money for nothing in return & that's what people are starting to realise more & more.
Posted by individual, Thursday, 2 January 2014 8:43:59 PM
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Off with their heads!

Can I pull the lever?
Posted by mikk, Thursday, 2 January 2014 9:26:33 PM
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Articles like this, & the posts that follow them always make me sick. At no stage do these people tell us what the hell they are talking about.

What is this Poor they talk about. Is it my next door neighbor, living on the single pension? Is it the couple down the road, also on the pension?

Is it me, living on a bit more, but not much more than the pension. If not, who are these poor.

Is it some dole bludger, who has chosen to avoid real work, & is poor in spirit, but considerable overpaid for their lack of effort.

Surely it can't be aborigines, living rent free, with lots of extras above the dole.

If they like to actually say something that is not just a socialist bitch, I might even consider their opinions. Currently they are worthless.
Posted by Hasbeen, Thursday, 2 January 2014 10:44:59 PM
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Hasbeen,
I am of the view that any people whose income does not afford them to save are poor. I agree with you that there are far too many who never performed sufficiently to even deserve the dole or a pension but there are also far too many who are given far too much for doing as little as the aforementioned. Our society's dilemma is the massive inequality in which taxpayer funded monies are distributed with utter impunity due to lack of accountability.
I have blokes who are on 38 grand a year & keeping the essential services going whilst the bureaucrats make dreadfully costly mistakes, causing disruption of services etc. get 200 grand a year plus allowances & various other benefits plus costing a fortune on needless frequent travel & squander hundreds of thousands on just as incomptent consultants.
The bureaucrats will retire on 6o grand a year pensions whilst the blokes who did all the work will get about 15 grand. So, in my opinion those on 15 grand are our poor.
Posted by individual, Friday, 3 January 2014 5:28:36 AM
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individual

'any people whose income does not afford them to save are poor'

That's a pretty good definition as far as I'm concerned. You could also extend that to: '.... whose income does not allow them to adequately function within their own society'.

So someone whose income cannot afford to pay for a comfortable level of health care, education, transport, housing, clothing, food and recreational activity is poor.

CORRECTION: A bit late, but for what it's worth ... in my first comment above, the words 'statistical correlations between wealth and money' should have read: 'statistical correlations between wealth and happiness'.
Posted by Killarney, Friday, 3 January 2014 7:17:29 PM
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