Survival of the fittest, or combined utopia?

Answer isn't Capitalism, it's 42. Everyone knows that...

Speaking of which, the questions you ask are subject of much speculation by science fiction writers. They are much better at these things than economists. Some are even downright brilliant...

 

We'd suffer from keep your mouth shut if there is nothing good to say disease

 

"Bernanke Offers a Lesson on Happiness"

"Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a departure from the complicated mechanics of modern central banking, dives into the economics profession’s very long-running discussion of happiness in a commencement speech at the University of South Carolina today.

Economics is, at its very roots, a study of how to improve human happiness and sense of satisfaction in life. [my emphasis] Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mill, 18th and 19th century philosophers, were consumed in “felicic calculus” and developing a theory of utility. And Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, wrote “The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” which began like this: “How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him...”


http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/05/08/bernanke-offers-a-lesson-on-happiness-to-college-grads/

 

What if everyone was wealthy
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One thought I took away from the book "740 Park Avenue" where everyone is was or up and coming wealthy.

You have:

Old money vs new money

Earned money vs inherited

Earned money in a socially responsible way vs vice (sinister).

Married money.

Earned money with brains vs brawn.

Money with lineage vs money with no "connections".

The list goes on.

The wealthy have there own set of problems.

 

wtf? why would you even post that link, what crap was in there that everyone didn't already know .. what type of moron even writes such obvious crap

you wake up to go to work, leaving your house you see your neighbor, a fucking disgustingly ugly fag hag, a piece of shit that even a dog wouldn't fuck, she too leaving her house, a house just like yours, with a car similar to yours, she lives a life like yours, thus you feel like you too must be a piece of shit like her, a fucking ugly bitch like her, why else would you be living the same life as her, and your feeling is showing you the truth; you are the same shit as her, only in another disgustingly ugly pathetic body

I have seen happy people in many different countries, they are the ones who don't work for any fucking government or for any fucking corporate or for any fucking human being out there, they are the ones who others work for them, thus they wake up whenever they feel like it, they go to work whenever they feel like it, they sleep whenever they feel like it, they fuck the cute girl they have hired whenever they feel like it, they do almost what they like when they like, percentage wise, they only make up a small portion of the society, but they are the ones who are happy, they are the real men, the rest of you are just fucking pathetic pigs and pussies regardless of what fucking country you live in

 

My electric is about 75 per month for a 3bdrm and I run the air-con all summer and the heat all winter 24/7. My highest electric bill ever in this house (1300 sq ft) was about $110. Of course it helps if you have energy efficient everything so you can run your air-con like that.

200 bucks for fuel & insurance is about what I pay per month in my honda CR-V

15 bucks for water....I have to agree with Captain here...You shower once per month? I pay about $50, but that waters my small front yard.

My car payment when I had one was $182 per month, but I put 50% down.

$100 bucks for entertainment? Yeah, thats no life unless trading & world of warcraft are your life and you never want to have a girlfriend or wife.

$200 bucks for food? Rice & beans only? Or maybe one $5 little ceasars pizza per day for a month, plus soda? You might survive alone on $200 bucks in groceries per month, but you wont with a family. Baby alone eats $75 per month in formula, so increase your food bill or never have kids.

 

If you really wanted a combined Utopia, you need to get EVERYONE in the world to obey the 10 commandments. All suffering can be traced back to breaking of the one of the 10 commandments.

Now, one might argue that if everyone could just change their thinking that they could achieve the same results of happiness. For instance, if someone didnt get upset when their spouse cheated on them, or didnt get upset if someone took something from them, or get upset if their sister/brother/child was molested. But then it wouldnt really be a happy place would it? It would be a place where people didnt feel anything.

Utopias can only be created on a small scale in this world and even then, they will not last very long. No more than a generation or two at the most. Its futile to try to get everyone in the same boat. Convince them if you can, but if you cant, leave them behind, dont force them.

 

The Second Law of Thermodynamics clearly states that all systems trend towards...chaos...excepting those supplied with...outside energy.

Ledger legerdemain is NOT equal to energy.

Between Obama, Merkel, Brown, etc...and the gears that have been turning the wheels of this universe for about...oh...13 billion years now...my money's on The Laws of Nature.

You can't borrow your way out of debt.

You can spin and jump thru hoops, but that only delays the inevitable (and usually makes it more intense).

You can work your way out of debt, but that's about the only viable option.

Looks to me like we, "we" as in "the human race", are going to re-learn this lesson...the hard way.

So be it.

Let the games begin.

 

If people had basic survival needs met for free, then they would put their efforts into desirable but unnecessary things like status, power, luxury, freedom, sex etc. Note that all of these are by definition going to be limited in supply - status, power, and luxury are all defined relatively, not in absolute terms; freedom is in conflict with other people's status, power, luxury and freedom etc; and sex is to some extent limited and exclusive.

Thus the day to day struggle of life would still exist, it would just be over these things instead. Back in the stone age the struggle was over food and water to survive, shelter to survive, other humans/tribes to survive, dangerous animals to survive. All basic survival needs were scarce and difficult. Nowadays in the 1st world, most basic survival needs are actually free due to the welfare state. The day to day struggle for the unenlightened (99% of society) is thus not over actual necessities, but over BS luxuries like status, power, material goods, recreational sex and so on.

In other words, neither of your outcomes are remotely likely, it will just be more of the usual. The goals will change but the game remains the same.

Capitalism is the answer to the question "how do we most efficiently produce things to meet economic demand". Free capitalism with a limited but robust state is the answer to "how do we best preserve liberty whilst also achieving prosperity beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors?" - at least so far it's the best answer anyone has found so far, that has proven to work to some extent (perhaps you could name an alternative?).

It takes a snails pace to achieve because the majority of society aren't intellectually curious, and thus don't study let alone understand human progress and its causes.

 

That's just false. Economics is about how best to use limited resources (i.e. how to 'economize') to achieve given a certain goal, or set of goals. It says nothing whatsoever about the merits of those goals. That is the realm of philosophy, not economics.