Money, Happiness, And Friends
Posted by Michelle Moquin on December 28th, 2010
Good morning!
Happiness ‘is about earning more than your friends’
Money doesn’t buy happiness – unless you earn more of it than your friends.
A study of life satisfaction in dozens of countries found that contrary to popular perception, economic growth doesn’t bring with it a corresponding long-term rise in happiness.
It found that while people may feel more positive in the short-term, the shine quickly wears off.
Can money buy happiness? For a short while and if you have more than your friends, according to new research.
However, within an individual country, the rich are happier than the poor.
This implies that what matters is earning more than others, not the actual amount earned, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.
The theory was first coined in the 1970s by U.S. researcher Richard Easterlin and became known as the Easterlin Paradox.
With several recent studies challenging his conclusions, Professor Easterlin set out to see if the pattern still exists.
Family fortunes: Happiness and financial security can be directly linked, but not in the long term.
After crunching together figures from 37 countries around the globe including burgeoning economies such as China, South Korea and Chile, the University of Southern California professor said little had changed.
He said: ‘Simply stated, the happiness-income paradox is this: at a point in time both among and within countries, happiness and income are positively correlated.
‘But, over time, happiness does not increase when a person’s income increases.’
He added: ‘China’s growth rate implies a doubling of real per capita income in less than 10 years, and Chile’s in 18 years.
‘Yet both China and Chile show mild declines in life satisfaction.’
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Readers: What do you think about what this article states? I was just having a conversation with an old friend last night. He was telling me of his recent trip to Africa, and I was sharing my travels that I took with Doug to Nepal many years ago. I said to him that I found it very humbling, and quite moving to be in a country that had very little…to be sharing dinner with people in their home where they have one couch, a table and a poster on their wall…very little material objects, living in poverty, and yet filled with pride, joy and love.
The poorest person living in America is rich compared to the people we met in Nepal, and many other places in the world. And yet their state of happiness is so much greater.
Someone once said to me, “Your friends will only be happy for your success as long as it doesn’t surpass their own.” I have had a debate over the years with several people who don’t think that statement is true. But I have seen and experienced the reaction of people over my successes, and the success of others who have surpassed their friends in the income arena.
When everyone surrounding you, including all of your friends and family have as little as you, as I discovered in Nepal…where there is no competition to “have more”, to “achieve more”, and where there are no promises of “anything more”…where spirituality, community, and connectedness holds a greater value, than frivolous material needs, people are actually more satisfied and happy.
We in America are filled with the promise of more – we have these continually dangling “carrots” in our faces of what life could be like if we had more money. Promises of wealth all over the television, magazines, etc., and people/friends who do have more money flaunt it to their friends that don’t, in essence saying, “I am more successful than you. I make more money than you. I can buy things, do things, go places etc., that you can’t.”
So yes, I do think that for many “happiness is earning more than your friends.” Would very wealthy people be just as happy if everyone else was just as wealthy? I don’t think so. Otherwise they would help people reach a greater wealth status instead of the norm of the very wealthy trying to keep it for them and theirs and continually preventing others from getting a chance at achieving a fair share. Racism aside. The Tax Law comes to mind here.
Or ask this: Does their money make them happy, or does it make them happy because they have great wealth and so many don’t, giving them an edge above others? Do you think that if everyone were equally rich, money would be a factor in their happiness? I don’t think so. So the same could be true if you and everyone around you were poor, and there were no promise of anything more.
That’s my thoughts. What are yours? Blog me.
Doug: I always enjoy reading your thoughts and take on the subject matter.
Zen Lill: Your drama sounds crazy. I HOPE that you really are okay.
Pi: I enjoyed reading your thoughts. Thank you.
Uma: So what are you waiting for? Send ‘em the link. :)
Lincoln: What a lovely comment to read. I do know that there are men out there who do value their females; I just wish that it was more prevalent and worldwide. Sadly, from what I have seen and experienced myself, men unfortunately realize the value of their woman when it is too late. I am happy to hear that you acknowledge, appreciate, and value your wife now. And no doubt she experiences the value that you see in her through your actions. Congratulations on your successful marriage. I wish the best for both of you.
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S: Thank you. But why not share who you are? I can only guess from the initial but then that may not be the initial to your first name. What’s the big deal?
Got to run…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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December 28th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Michelle,
I think of that trip so often during the days of my life. I yearn to explore the world again with you. You are forever my traveling companion. I will traverse to the edges of the Known Universe with you, and beyond.
I agree with your posit that the rich, at least many of those rich that are happy, stay happy by knowing that they have what so many cannot attain. And that they feel important to be in their “special” club. I recall the smiles from Nepal, India, as well as those in Indonesia, and Thailand. The happiest people we have ever met come from the poorest places. There is much to learn from those who are most educated not of higher learning but of the art of self. When there is seemingly no material possessions for one to lose one’s self in one finds the diamonds of life within the people of one’s life, and within themselves. Within the conversations and actions of others and the assistance in the communal lifestyle of those that live on the edges of the ladder of life. This is not to say that progress is not intelligent. It just must be executed with intelligence and responsibility, rather than greed and corruption. Our paradigm is broken.
Lawrence O’Donnell, The Last Word on MSNBC, had a show recently where he discussed his recent visit to Malawi. The story was of a village in Malawi and a look inside the education systems and classrooms where the children walk miles to go to school only to sit on a concrete floor for whole day, with little light from the sun entering in through one window…He created a partnership with Unicef with which to create for the children, in order to “Lift them up” and give them a “boost” by supplying a simple thing we all take for granted…a chair. Only not only a chair, but a chair and a desk. The classrooms filled with 90 students to the one teacher is forever changed. This little action allowed the dreams to blossom within these kids and their smiles span their faces. More on this story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40558738/. It shows how happiness can transcend through material or lack of material possessions.
Lewis,
My take is that Jesus was not a human, but an alien in sheople’s clothing, so to speak. The message was delivered, with varied corresponding miracles, by an alien presenting themself as human. The aliens have stated before of the God myth that they gave the world, as well as, other worlds their own myths in order to maintain communal order through a fear of “God”. As long as people fear God, and attempt to adhere to the rules that it gave the humans to live by, some matter of order might be maintained throughout the planet in order so that we don’t kill each other off so that we can remain as much a cattle planet and keep producing a food product for the visitors over the millenias…
Cordney,
Your question insinuates that aliens do not fuck humans? The story of Mary is just the same is it has ever been, only she was fucking and alien being…I didn’t know sex had any specific timeframes…?
Sief,
Your quip of where else,.. it could be anywhere.
Henry,
LOL! Gee, thanks Brad for this stale financial information…
Walter,
If you go back to the beginning of this blog and re-read all of the entries you will find where I came to this conclusion.
Remember this, folks, that you might be sitting next to an alien being on the bus and not know it. You might be served at a restaurant by an alien being and not know it. You might be watching your favorite movie star who is actually an alien being and not know it. You might be married to an alien being and not know it… This does not mean you must fear this, Hollywood makes it seems so, but because you are powerless to the situation as you cannot prove it one way or the other, fear is simply your own manifestation to what you cannot control. The power to do and be what they wish on this planet, in order for them to learn more about this planet is a matter of school for them. They are studying humans in order to understand them better, just as we might study chimps, gorillas or elephants in order to understand them better. It’s just that they are able to do their studies on foreign planets, while morphing into or becoming other beings. We cannot even get to the moon a few times in 50 years, so our ability to work with, learn from, and manipulate our environment and ourselves is quite limited. When we, as a society reach a point of being able to traverse even within our own solar system, let alone venturing out into others, will we then be able to say that this Milky Way system is “our” system rather than simply a system with which we reside in and are a part of. We say that humans are the owners of this planet, in that we are the dominant specie that are able to manipulate and even destroy our own environment and the environment that ALL other species reside in, that this power makes humans the “owners” of this planet. However, to claim this planet as ours we must understand that we hold a responsibility to it. Since we are unable to leave and go anywhere else, as owners, it is quite stupid to treat it as we do. What else do each of you own that you all treat with such disregard? So, thus, we might think we own it, however, visitors that are able to come and go as they please truly own this pale blue dot.
To think that we hold ourselves, the human race, as highly educated, and an intelligent sentient beings yet, we destroy the only place we are able to call home is not only stupid but very irresponsible. Thus, perhaps only it is our ego that allows us the ability to call us sentient and intelligent. The irony lies with us that we near an edge of an abyss that we might be unable to return from as a specie, let alone our own lives will be gone. The earth will still turn, as it did prior to our place here. The earth owns us, not the other way around. The day that we begin to understand this might our global paradigm change. The day that we begin to understand that we are but a small part in this system and not the owner of it will we begin to respect the true owner of it. Earth owns us. It breathes and reacts to what we do to it just like any other living organism would. Just as we fight of a deadly virus, so is she as she tries to survive.
We might own our environment, but Earth owns us. Aliens own the Earth as they are able to manipulate it and come and go.
December 28th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
1.It’s not how home much you make, but what you save.
2.One day Earth will die. She is not infinite.
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~True character is doing the right thing when no one is looking~
December 28th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Keep Joints Feeling Young!
Harris H. McIlwain, MD
Tampa Medical Group
In my rheumatology practice I often treat patients suffering from painfully arthritic joints who have been unable to get relief, despite seeing many doctors.
I tell them that one of the most important things they can do for their arthritis is to change their diets.
After just a few weeks on my pain-free diet plan, I’ve had many patients cut back on their anti-inflammatory medications and even put off joint-replacement surgery.
The diet helps alleviate pain and stiffness in most types of arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
How it works: The pain-free diet guides you toward healing foods that are known to reduce inflammation and boost the immune system.
It helps you eliminate those foods that promote inflammation and might trigger symptoms. The diet also includes recommendations on nutritional supplements.
Bonus: This nutritional approach makes it easier to maintain a healthy body weight, which is essential for patients who need to take pressure off their joints.
Maintaining a healthy body weight also produces metabolic changes that lessen the body’s inflammatory response.
Helpful: It’s easier to maintain a healthy weight when you eat frequent, smaller meals. Instead of three large meals, eat about six mini-meals throughout the day.
In addition to a breakfast, lunch and dinner of about 300 calories each, eat three snacks between meals of about 150 to 200 calories each.
FOODS THAT HEAL
Foods that are high in antioxidants and other inflammation-fighting nutrients can noticeably reduce arthritis pain and stiffness when consumed daily. The following are especially effective…
High-antioxidant fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants help reduce inflammation. Several years ago, the US Department of Agriculture ranked the following foods according to their antioxidant activity.
Among the top 10 fruits and vegetables from highest to lowest were blueberries, kale, strawberries, spinach, Brussels sprouts, plums, broccoli, beets, oranges and red grapes.
Eat a variety of these foods, raw and cooked, to get the greatest benefit. Also beneficial: Asparagus, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, avocados, grapefruit, peaches and watermelon.
Oil-rich fish. Research has shown that the omega-3 fatty acids contained in anchovies, mackerel, salmon, sardines, shad, tuna, whitefish and herring help reduce inflammation — particularly levels of leukotriene B4, a chemical that contributes to many types of arthritis.
Researchers have found that women who ate at least three servings of baked or broiled fish weekly had about half the risk of getting rheumatoid arthritis as those who ate only one serving.
Soy. Studies have found that a diet rich in soy may help reduce inflammation-related pain and swelling.
Try tofu, soy milk, soy yogurt, soybeans or miso, a traditional Japanese food consisting of fermented soybeans and made into a thick paste.
Green and black tea. Green tea contains a polyphenol (a chemical found in plants that acts as an antioxidant) called EGCG, which can inhibit a key gene involved in the arthritis inflammation response.
Research suggests that the more you drink, the more benefit you’ll get. Black tea, while processed differently than green, also provides benefits.
It contains anti-inflammatory chemicals of its own called theaflavins.
The Iowa Women’s Health Study found that women who drank three or more cups of tea (not including herbal tea) reduced their risk of rheumatoid arthritis by 60%.
Pineapple. This tasty fruit contains bromelain, an enzyme that reduces inflammation associated with arthritis. Fresh pineapple is the most beneficial, but canned is also good.
Onions and apples. Both of these foods are especially high in flavonoids, which are also inflammation-fighting compounds. Eat a variety of these foods, both raw and cooked.
FOODS TO AVOID
The only way to know which of the foods below affect your joint pain is to eliminate each one for at least two weeks and assess your symptoms. That way, you’ll know which type of food increases your inflammation and pain.
Avoid foods that increase inflammation. There are a variety of foods that trigger the body to produce cytokines — naturally occurring proteins that can promote inflammation, leading to pain and deterioration of cartilage in the joints.
These include beef and other red meat… foods cooked at high temperatures, particularly fried foods… and any foods containing man-made trans fats (often called partially hydrogenated fats or oils on food labels), including junk food and commercial baked goods. Eat these types of foods sparingly.
Reduce intake of foods from animal products. I tell my patients to eat turkey and chicken in moderation.
But the fact is that all animal products — including poultry, some farm-raised fish, egg yolks and other dairy products — contain arachidonic acid, a fatty acid that is converted by the body into prostaglandins and leukotrienes, two other types of inflammation-causing chemicals.
I’ve had many patients tell me that they reduced arthritis symptoms by adopting a “modified vegetarian” diet.
Key: Decrease your intake of animal protein and increase the amount of protein you get from fish and plant sources, such as beans, nuts, soy, portobello mushrooms (a common meat substitute) and whole grains.
Start by substituting one-fourth of the animal protein you normally eat with plant-based foods, cold-water fish and low-fat dairy. After two or three months, increase the substitution to half — adding more vegetables, fruits, lentils, beans, fish, whole grains and low-fat dairy.
After a while, many of my patients choose to give up all animal protein because they enjoy the benefit of reduced pain and inflammation.
Note: A small percentage of people find that certain vegetables — including tomatoes, white potatoes, peppers and eggplant — make their arthritis worse.
These nightshade family plants contain solanine, a substance that can be toxic if not sufficiently digested in the intestines.
Eliminate all of these foods, then add them back one at a time — as long as you do not have pain or inflammation.
Stay away from foods with a high glycemic index. While high-glycemic foods (foods that quickly raise your blood sugar) should be avoided by people with diabetes or prediabetes, they pose problems for people with arthritis as well.
Reason: They increase insulin production, which promotes accumulation of body fat and causes a rebound sensation of hunger a few hours after eating — making it harder to maintain a healthy weight, which is important for reducing arthritis symptoms.
High-glycemic foods include table sugar, baked white potatoes, French fries, pretzels, white bread and rolls, white and brown rice, potato and corn chips, waffles, doughnuts and corn flakes.
SUPPLEMENTS THAT CAN EASE ARTHRITIS
The following supplements may also help reduce arthritis inflammation. Always check with your doctor before taking any dietary supplement — even a “natural” one.
Glucosamine (1,500 mg/daily). While the data on this nutritional supplement are mixed, it’s perfectly safe. Some studies suggest that it may slow arthritis progression.
It’s often combined with chondroitin (1,200 mg), another nutritional supplement that may help relieve arthritis symptoms for some people.
Vitamin C (500 mg to 1,000 mg/daily) plays a key role in building and protecting collagen, an important component of cartilage.
Among other things, it contains antioxidants that fight inflammation and help regenerate damaged joint tissue.
Bromelain. This anti-inflammatory enzyme is found in pineapple, but it’s also available in pill or capsule form.
Include fresh pineapple (two servings daily) in your diet or take capsules (follow directions on label for amounts) — or do both.
Fish oil capsules. For people who aren’t eating two or more servings of fish per week, this is a good option.
Your dose should provide 600 mg of combined DHA and EPA in a 2:1 ratio — the ratio that occurs naturally in wild salmon. Read your product’s label for its DHA/EPA content.
Ginger. Clinical studies have found that this herb reduces arthritis symptoms and inflammation. It can be taken in the form of tincture, capsules, as a spice added to foods or as a tea made from boiling ginger root. You may benefit by drinking ginger juice or extract.
Since ginger inhibits blood clotting, don’t consume more than four grams a day.
Retirement interviewed Harris McIlwain, MD, a board-certified specialist in rheumatology and geriatric medicine who practices with the Tampa Medical Group in Florida, http://www.tampamedicalgroup.com.
He is coauthor of Pain-Free Arthritis — A 7-Step Program for Feeling Better Again (Owl).
December 28th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Money is the root of all evil, but that’s just my opinion.
December 28th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
All this talk about money and I’ve none. it makes me want to go out and rob a bank.
December 28th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Ethel
Money is not the evil. It is the lack of civilized restraint during the coveting of money that is evil.
“Money is the root of all evil,” is not your opinion. It was given to you by some idiot who probably used it to keep others from doing what he was doing, coveting all he could get without any moral restraints.
He was just eliminating a little of the competition. So get back into the game. Earning the means to enjoy life is a necessity. Just remember not to kill anyone to get it.
Chas
December 28th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Hafa adai
The GDA is no longer disposing of trees. So you have to do it yourself. But DON’T burn them.
______________________________________________
As the Christmas lights are taken down and the ornaments packed away for next year, what will happen to the island’s thousands of Christmas tree
Department of Agriculture said it won’t be disposing of Christmas trees this year because its wood chipper has been out of commission for some time.
The landfill isn’t accepting green waste, which includes Christmas trees, and leaving the decaying tree on the side of the road will only be an eyesore for the neighborhood.
“The best thing to do with a tree would be to cut it up into pieces and plow it around other trees as mulch,” said John Borja, chief of agriculture development at Guam’s agriculture agency.
“If you let the tree rot, it will become mulch and, within six months or so, it will begin to organically break down.”
A Christmas tree is biodegradable, but in order to create effective mulch to support the greenery around the yard, be sure to remove any of the wiring, tinsel or ornaments from the tree before chopping it into smaller pieces. It helps if there’s a mulcher or wood chipper on hand, Borja said.
Borja added if the tree is freshly cut, be sure not to put it too close to the tree its supposed to be helping, because as the chips decay, it will try to seep nitrogen from the plant.
If residents don’t mind having a decaying tree in their backyards, old Christmas trees make a great base for a organic compost piles, kindling for fires or firewood for cooking.
Borja recommends people don’t burn their whole Christmas trees, especially in residential areas, because the smoke and fire can cause problems for the neighbors. Also, burning trees leave a carbon footprint that should be avoided.
“Do not burn, because if you do, people downwind will get the smoke and inhale the stuff,” he said. “Just be cautious, if anything, and be aware of your neighborhood.
In recent years, the Guam Department of Agriculture and other organizations have helped dispose of Christmas trees with a mulching program. Christmas tree owners only had to drop off trees at a specified location and the department would dispose of them free of charge.
But for several years, the machine used by the Agriculture Department, which could process about 20 trees an hour, has been out of service.
“At first we had hydraulic problems, then electrical and now the whole machine has decayed,” Borja said of the machine, which was handed down by the Department of Parks and Recreation.
“It was sitting for too long before the repairs, so it rusted and we never got the parts because the series of machinery was obsolete.”
_________________________________
So now you know Guam’s broken machine means you have to bury your own Xmas trees. You think they could have told us this before we bought the damn things.
Peter
December 28th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
The war is over. Azza is heading to the Sinea sector of the ireal galaxy. We will return to earth to collect the training party left behind and to begin the pick up of those we have selected.
Maz
December 29th, 2010 at 4:05 am
When a Relationship Ends
Eli Finkel, PhD
Paul Eastwick, PhD
Northwestern University
Breaking up is easier to do than most people realize — even though it is painful.
Recent finding: Relationship breakups typically cause less distress than most people expect — and the unhappiness lasts for less time than predicted.
Most people in a recent study were back to their prebreakup level of happiness within two months, even though they anticipated that it would take longer.
Personal interviewed Paul Eastwick, PhD candidate, and Eli Finkel, PhD, psychology researchers, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and coauthors of a study published online in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
December 29th, 2010 at 4:08 am
Zen lill, are you really okay or do you need so fan help?
December 29th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
“It’s the DOING with money that develops us – it’s not in the having.
And when you have more, you’re enabled to DO more.”
–Jack Canfield
January 1st, 2011 at 11:16 pm
Chas you are right it is not my opinion. its a quotation i heard once. i liked this you said Money is not the evil. It is the lack of civilized restraint during the coveting of money that is evil. i had to think about that a while
January 2nd, 2011 at 9:53 am
[...] Ethel: I saw your comment, but I doubt that Chas saw it. As I mentioned a few days ago, please keep your comments contemporary so that everyone can see and read them, by commenting on the most current day and referring to the blog that you are commenting on, if necessary. Thanks! [...]