Can money buy happiness?
Everywhere I go a fly girl will please me. East or west college girls are easy." :P
Beastie Boys -
~o~
On to more serious matters. A few things that have been on my mind recently.
I've started writing again. Okay so I wrote yesterday, I guess that counts. I have 3 pages of the next chapter of Second Chance written. Onwards brave fanfiction soldier onwards.
I have had a few new people added to my flist so I thought I would ask them a question to gauge their worthiness (hehe).
H/G. Friend or Foe?
Choose wisely. ;)
~o~
Moving on.
Can Money buy love and happiness. Sure it can.
Can poverty also equal love and happiness, of course! I fail to see why it has to be one or the other.
Are there people living in slums right this minute who are happy. Yes, there are.
Are there people living in mansions right this minute who are happy. Yes there are.
And if you ask the same question again, except change the mood to sad, you'll find the same results.
Popular culture, (television, movies, literature) have cultivated this image and sometimes rightfully so that the rich are for the most part morally bankrupt. And you know, that is sometimes the case. When you can do a lot of things, than sometimes self restraint etc.. gets tossed out the window. But at the same time a lot of what we read, see, hear has a self righteous slant to it. It's very preachy. "Oh look at the stupid rich people, all that money and their marriage is still falling apart!!!"
Yes, because poor people never have marital problems or bad habits.
When we look at things from a middle class point of view or a western pov, it's a bit harder to see my side of things. Probably none of us who are reading this has really, really gone hungry for an extended time period. Probably none of us have had to be child workers or had to leave school to support the family etc.etc.. But for a few billion people on this planet those are things that may or may not happen on a daily basis. Now you tell me, if you work 12-14 hours a day, make less than a dollar a day, than stumble home, eat and go to sleep, where's the time for love? At least 'love' as we like to think about it in the west. It ain't there. You take the same kid, give his family some money, so he can go to school instead, give them enough money for a decent home and some decent clothing, you don't think the kid becomes happier almost overnight?
The pursuit of money for the sake of it, may not lead to a lasting joy, but for most people money leads to things that make us happier.
And once you get past that point in life where you don't need to spend all your free time simply surviving, than you can start pursuing a mate, romance etc.etc...
Am I simplifying things. Yes. Does it change what I'm saying no.
Rob do you concede that there are some innate joys that cannot be duplicated even with millions of dollars?
Yes, i do. Having your child tell you they love you. Sex. Having your favourite team win a big game. All the same joy no matter how much money you have.
But if we are going to use that argument than we surely have to look at the flip side of things. Is there a lot of downsides to being poor that you don't get when you are rich.
Yes, yes and more yes. They are quite obvious so I'm not going to go into them.
And the end of the day however, a lot (not all of course) but a lot of life's joys are possible for both sides.
The reason i wrote this is because there was that question in a meme that went around that asked would you rather be rich and single, or married and poor. I thought that was a really dumb question. Because it basically at it's root is asking, do you want love or money? Once again, why are we so pre-programmed that these are polar opposites?
I never want my kids to go hungry. Or have to go without. Or to have to worry about wearing shoes with holes in them. I don't want my children to have to work like dogs during summer holidays so they can afford tuition for next year at university.
Basically the idea of struggling financially while being married does not appeal to me in the least.
That doesn't mean I won't get married unless I marry rich, but given the two options with everything else being equal, I fail to see why anyone would pick poverty and marriage over money and marraige.
BUt rob, you're not playing by the rules. The question was do you want to be single and rich, not married and rich. I'll take single and rich. I can always get married in the future, it's much harder in the world today to go from poor to rich.
I do realise questions like these have all kinds of disclaimers like "Well whatever you choose, that's it for you for the rest of your life. hahahah". In that case, still take single and rich. As I said earlier, I rather not have children, or I would rather adopt a child, than raise a family on paycheque to paycheque. I've lived that life and I have no intention of having my kids do the same. If that makes me a bad person, eh so be it.
Beastie Boys -
~o~
On to more serious matters. A few things that have been on my mind recently.
I've started writing again. Okay so I wrote yesterday, I guess that counts. I have 3 pages of the next chapter of Second Chance written. Onwards brave fanfiction soldier onwards.
I have had a few new people added to my flist so I thought I would ask them a question to gauge their worthiness (hehe).
H/G. Friend or Foe?
Choose wisely. ;)
~o~
Moving on.
Can Money buy love and happiness. Sure it can.
Can poverty also equal love and happiness, of course! I fail to see why it has to be one or the other.
Are there people living in slums right this minute who are happy. Yes, there are.
Are there people living in mansions right this minute who are happy. Yes there are.
And if you ask the same question again, except change the mood to sad, you'll find the same results.
Popular culture, (television, movies, literature) have cultivated this image and sometimes rightfully so that the rich are for the most part morally bankrupt. And you know, that is sometimes the case. When you can do a lot of things, than sometimes self restraint etc.. gets tossed out the window. But at the same time a lot of what we read, see, hear has a self righteous slant to it. It's very preachy. "Oh look at the stupid rich people, all that money and their marriage is still falling apart!!!"
Yes, because poor people never have marital problems or bad habits.
When we look at things from a middle class point of view or a western pov, it's a bit harder to see my side of things. Probably none of us who are reading this has really, really gone hungry for an extended time period. Probably none of us have had to be child workers or had to leave school to support the family etc.etc.. But for a few billion people on this planet those are things that may or may not happen on a daily basis. Now you tell me, if you work 12-14 hours a day, make less than a dollar a day, than stumble home, eat and go to sleep, where's the time for love? At least 'love' as we like to think about it in the west. It ain't there. You take the same kid, give his family some money, so he can go to school instead, give them enough money for a decent home and some decent clothing, you don't think the kid becomes happier almost overnight?
The pursuit of money for the sake of it, may not lead to a lasting joy, but for most people money leads to things that make us happier.
And once you get past that point in life where you don't need to spend all your free time simply surviving, than you can start pursuing a mate, romance etc.etc...
Am I simplifying things. Yes. Does it change what I'm saying no.
Rob do you concede that there are some innate joys that cannot be duplicated even with millions of dollars?
Yes, i do. Having your child tell you they love you. Sex. Having your favourite team win a big game. All the same joy no matter how much money you have.
But if we are going to use that argument than we surely have to look at the flip side of things. Is there a lot of downsides to being poor that you don't get when you are rich.
Yes, yes and more yes. They are quite obvious so I'm not going to go into them.
And the end of the day however, a lot (not all of course) but a lot of life's joys are possible for both sides.
The reason i wrote this is because there was that question in a meme that went around that asked would you rather be rich and single, or married and poor. I thought that was a really dumb question. Because it basically at it's root is asking, do you want love or money? Once again, why are we so pre-programmed that these are polar opposites?
I never want my kids to go hungry. Or have to go without. Or to have to worry about wearing shoes with holes in them. I don't want my children to have to work like dogs during summer holidays so they can afford tuition for next year at university.
Basically the idea of struggling financially while being married does not appeal to me in the least.
That doesn't mean I won't get married unless I marry rich, but given the two options with everything else being equal, I fail to see why anyone would pick poverty and marriage over money and marraige.
BUt rob, you're not playing by the rules. The question was do you want to be single and rich, not married and rich. I'll take single and rich. I can always get married in the future, it's much harder in the world today to go from poor to rich.
I do realise questions like these have all kinds of disclaimers like "Well whatever you choose, that's it for you for the rest of your life. hahahah". In that case, still take single and rich. As I said earlier, I rather not have children, or I would rather adopt a child, than raise a family on paycheque to paycheque. I've lived that life and I have no intention of having my kids do the same. If that makes me a bad person, eh so be it.