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#12Anecdotal: the richest self made people I know work the hardest, the poorest don't work at all or as little as possible, by choice (state pays). People who inherited wealth are the unhappiest and the people who do well but not enough to be rich (I guess some type of middle class) whine about it all and want to be rich to vacation the rest of their life (but will probably never get there as they never run, just chug a…
Not anecdotal: By nature of the structural relations of our society, the richest people are exploiting the labor of the poorest people, which leaves little reason for the poor people to coopperate.
Not anecdotal, just plain wrong!
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#13Anecdotal: the richest self made people I know work the hardest, the poorest don't work at all or as little as possible, by choice (state pays). People who inherited wealth are the unhappiest and the people who do well but not enough to be rich (I guess some type of middle class) whine about it all and want to be rich to vacation the rest of their life (but will probably never get there as they never run, just chug a…
>People who inherited wealth are the unhappiest
Please. Meet more people or just read a newspaper or book. The rich love to whine about dissatisfaction, but it is in the smallest tier of unhappiness. The stress of dealing with (or putting off) healthcare you need but can't afford, being evicted or having your utilities turned off, watching those around you slowly die to a drug epidemic, living every day in fear of being arrested by the police that target your neighborhood or your race.....there are actual hardships in life, and the boredom of being out of ideas on how to spend your money is not one of them.
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#14I think this article is disingenuous, because not all things are difficult for all people. Some people really do work a few hours per week and still live a comfortable lifestyle, whether because they had a lot of help getting a comfy job (wealthy parents, lots of tutoring, nepotism, etc.) or maybe won the genetic lottery, while disadvantaged people may see it as not only difficult but maybe impossible to attain the same without any of that help. I think it comes down to inequality, not laziness.
I don't know what the solution is; inequality shows no signs of abating, disadvanted people find it difficult to get assistance, and there is a culture driven by articles like these that support the notion that "if you grind hard enough you'll succeed." Personally, I think we should be more sympathetic/empathetic to the plight of these people
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#15I've been poor and rich, insanely busy and idle.
Wealth removes the day to day stress, and that goes a long way. But it doesn't bring happiness itself.
Same with work. Idleness is fun for a short while, then awful. We all know too much work is awful.
Feeling like you have a purpose is the most important thing. I think the formula for happiness is something like: avoid poverty but recognize there are rapidly diminishing returns on wealth, don't be idle but work on something purposeful, if you cannot find purpose in work find it elsewhere.
Oh and take care of your body!
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#16Doing hard things improves you, but ultimately your personality is largely defined by the time you stop being a child. Industriousness is very much a personality dimension and it is very hard to change. Industriousness is a measure of how satisfied you are doing nothing. Highly industrious personalities are the most prevalent factor with success across the lifespan (in Western economies) and also seem less likely to develop in Western Democracies where life outlook is stable, nutrition is good and creativity encouraged. but the cause is currently a few avenues of speculation. Personality dimensions are mostly impossible to change meaningfully, but it seems psychadelics and traumatic brain injury seem to be the only two things capable of doing so on a permanent basis, but both have a high chance of causing negative/catastrophic consequences.
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#17Anecdotal: the richest self made people I know work the hardest, the poorest don't work at all or as little as possible, by choice (state pays). People who inherited wealth are the unhappiest and the people who do well but not enough to be rich (I guess some type of middle class) whine about it all and want to be rich to vacation the rest of their life (but will probably never get there as they never run, just chug a…
The rich people I know are the ones who were lucky to be born I a place/social class where opportunities were available to them, and maybe they worked hard.
The first is a prerequisite. Hard work might be needed, but not always, specially if you are born in to a rich family.
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#18I’m not surprised that this was written by a self-described serial entrepreneur. It has all the hallmarks of a “capitalism isn’t all that bad, it turned out great for me!” type of view.
From a philosophical standpoint I do agree with the author that difficult, deep work is spiritually enriching. But most bullshit jobs that people work for their 9-5 are not that.
I think people are not sick of work in general, but rather are sick of that bullshit work. Working for subsistence, in a way that is obviously exploitative, to enrich corporate elites who actively seek to keep conditions worse for the working class. The grift is much more out in the open now than it used to be.
The conditions of the working class in America are not ordained by God, but rather maintained by the people who are heavily invested in keeping the system the way it is. We could have much more leisure time, like most other industrialized countries. We could have socialized healthcare, like most other industrialized countries. But we don’t, and when people get fed up with it, we got a slew of blog posts like this explaining that those grievances are all bullshit and they should just shut up and enjoy their work.
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#19Anecdotal: the richest self made people I know work the hardest, the poorest don't work at all or as little as possible, by choice (state pays). People who inherited wealth are the unhappiest and the people who do well but not enough to be rich (I guess some type of middle class) whine about it all and want to be rich to vacation the rest of their life (but will probably never get there as they never run, just chug a…
“I know”. This says more about you.
He literally prefaced it with “Anecdotal:”.
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#20Anecdotal: the richest self made people I know work the hardest, the poorest don't work at all or as little as possible, by choice (state pays). People who inherited wealth are the unhappiest and the people who do well but not enough to be rich (I guess some type of middle class) whine about it all and want to be rich to vacation the rest of their life (but will probably never get there as they never run, just chug a…
>People who inherited wealth are the unhappiest Please. Meet more people or just read a newspaper or book. The rich love to whine about dissatisfaction, but it is in the smallest tier of unhappiness. The stress of dealing with (or putting off) healthcare you need but can't afford, being evicted or having your utilities turned off, watching those around you slowly die to a drug epidemic, living every day in fear of be…
I do not live in the US, it seems rather different over there. But I was actually talking about people who inherited millions and because of lack of life goals etc they ended up dead (suicides), addicts, in jail etc. I do not know if you can judge their tier of unhappiness or if it is a contest: they squandered the life of ease they were given but they are genuinely unhappy: if you want to put a comparison scale on that, that is fine. I said anecdotal and I didn't exactly grow up in a cocoon so no need for the reading advice: I do understand that I live in the first world and so do the people that I know: life can be much worse, I know.