Well DAMN...cant beeelieve it !!! Baahhhaaa So....ur back and posting.... Cheers, bro and hope all is well with you. rcj
LOL I don't know if Monaco is all that representative for Europe really. A quote from U2's the Edge comes to mind. "In the US when someone is rich his neighbour thinks, man I want to be that guy. In Ireland when someone is rich his neighbour thinks: when he leaves his home I will break his legs."
A psychological study shows that after you hit 60k USD per yr, the marginal returns of money on happiness goes down dramatically
That's very interesting. Also notable is the suicide level in the richer Western Europe which is far higher then in the PIGS.
This is generally the case for any rich country. Depression is a rich people's illness. Poorer people are more concerned with how they're going to feed the family tonight. Ninna
In Europe there are families who've been rich for centuries or longer, but after the industrial revolution, they were no longer richer than the richest nouveau riches. So, they needed some non-monetary way to still display social/status superiority. The way to do this was easy - be understated with the wealth. Because most poor people who become rich choose to show of their new-found wealth, being understated about wealth becomes a signal that you are "old money" and hence of higher social class. That's all there is too it - simple snobbery, with the added benefit that you can delude yourself that you are somehow morally superior too for not falling prey to the crass desire to "show off". This suggests that those from poor backgrounds, or ones without a history of wealth, will show off new wealth more than those places where money is more established. Hence, places like LA, Vegas and Miami are more about showing off than established places like Boston or certain parts of Manhattan. The more ghetto the city, country, or social group, the more they will spend on conspicuous consumption relative to "discrete" consumption. As for why people are so obsessed with status, it's simple genetics. Higher status attracts more and higher quality mates, so people who pursue status tend to reproduce more successfully. That's why people try to put others down, try to get ahead of others, try to show off how good they are etc, they don't even realise they are acting on an animal impulse from millions of years of natural selection. It's pretty sickening but extremely common behaviour. The way to be happy is to realise the true nature of animal impulses and then learn to moderate and resist them in favour of your own goals and prioities. That way you can live for what you value, not what was useful back in the dog eat dog world of the stone age. It's you who has to deal with your life, and your genetic legacy only matters to your genes, it is completely irrelevant to you yourself. The way to be happy is simple - employ rational analysis on your life and surroundings, and learn the nature of things. Act based on reasons and anticipated outcomes, not emotional impulses and dreams. This is far more likely to lead you to build a life that you actually enjoy and get satisfaction from. The number 1 problem of most people is they never analyse or examine their life and where it is heading. Just go into any bar on a Friday or Saturday night - do these really look like people who have a coherent plan in life, who are going to do something significant or meaningful with their lives?
I agree. Also, perhaps people want recognition and displays of wealth can bring admiration from others. We all crave status. In fact many unfortunate 'primitive' and genetically biased attributes of our natures are impossible to escape. We often 'subsume' them through another means but they are always there. The consuption of opiates to dull the pain from our sense of mortality and failure will, I fear, always be there. It is the core of our humanity and art.