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What Is a Minimally Good Life?

psyche.co

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Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#21

Post by storminabucket »

HenryBemis wrote: post #17
storminabucket wrote: post #3

I'm confused, the article seems to be actually asking the question. "It varies" is brought up multiple times, but that doesen't exactly help outlining how we would be able to define minimally good life. It also asks whether a reasonable, caring and free person would trade places with the worst off, which I'd find very unlikely. What you can realistically do about it is unknown.

But it does. The typical "it depends" applies perfectly to this question. >The thought is that having some distance from each person’s experience will help us see whether that person really needs all the things they think they need. What works for you, doesn't work for me, and the other way round. Apart from the basic NEEDS (some call it "four walls" - shelter, utilities, transportation, basic groceries) everything e…

It's just that "it depends" is not very satisfactory, it's the default answer to all questions.

All questions are fractal in nature, and unsolvable without a problem-domain. By defining the domain a thing can be answered, such as "how much force do i need to throw this ball over there?" Otherwise no definite answer can be provided, because the next galaxy over tips the scales just a bit, as does the infinitesimally small difference in the ball's structure, and so forth.

>During COVID I saw with my own eyes that you can go from 100-to-1 in 6 months if you haven't made sure you got emergency funds on the side

This is why I think a social aid/basic income system with free healthcare is a must. You can't choose to be healthy and not to have accidents. I think we must all provide a basic net for the things outside our control. Of course I'm biased, being a finn in covid times is a tremendous blessing

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#22

Post by [deleted] »

joelbluminator wrote: post #11
devguy01 wrote: post #5

I often contemplate what it is that leads to a "good life". I am very fortunate in so many ways, yet I allow myself to feel envy, call circumstances unfair because I didn't get what I want, or forget to be grateful. I see my kids growing up not knowing what struggling really feels like and realize that I don't have a true perspective of being without. I'm not saying that I would rather experience the feeling of hunge…

I've read several articles / books on this topic lately. In short: it's not only you that's contemplating on the "good life", plenty is being researched and written about. Our genes make it hard for us to be consistently content and happy. It seems like evolution may have given the slightly paranoid / always needing more genes an advantage for obvious reasons. One research even showed lottery prize winners aren't any…

[deleted]

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#24

Post by paganel »

bovermyer wrote: post #8
growlist wrote: post #2

I know that personally I really don't need much for my own happiness - the basics of survival, a very modest house, and being away from people and in nature would do it for me. The problem comes when these simple things are denied to me, and I am put in a society in which one is treated badly when one doesn't strive to keep up with the Joneses. Controversial opinion: the people with the power to change the never-endi…

I don't know where you got that idea from, but your impression of the entire female gender is flawed, stereotypical, and yes, wrong. I'm male. My competitive streak and desire for material goods is in direct conflict with my wife's desires. Most people I know similarly refute your opinion by their goals, personalities, and life status.

> I don't know where you got that idea from, but your impression of the entire female gender is flawed, stereotypical, and yes, wrong.

OP is maybe exaggerating to make a point but there's a Seinfeld episode which I remember from many years ago, where Jerry says something like how a man can be really interested in what a woman does at her work, even though that woman might be a janitor, while the reverse is not true, no woman is interested in a man who's a janitor (I mean, she's not interested in his work).

And the statistics seem to support that, as more men are willing to marry women who are "beneath" them from a societal point of view (career and education) compared to women (i.e. women are less likely than man to marry members of the opposite sex who are placed "bellow" them).

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#25

Post by RhysU »

bovermyer wrote: post #8
growlist wrote: post #2

I know that personally I really don't need much for my own happiness - the basics of survival, a very modest house, and being away from people and in nature would do it for me. The problem comes when these simple things are denied to me, and I am put in a society in which one is treated badly when one doesn't strive to keep up with the Joneses. Controversial opinion: the people with the power to change the never-endi…

I don't know where you got that idea from, but your impression of the entire female gender is flawed, stereotypical, and yes, wrong. I'm male. My competitive streak and desire for material goods is in direct conflict with my wife's desires. Most people I know similarly refute your opinion by their goals, personalities, and life status.

> My competitive streak and desire for material goods is in direct conflict with my wife's desires.

I find it hard to believe that your wife would prefer you to be a materially/economically poor individual who doesn't strive vs your peers. To each her own, of course.

(I take no position on the GP's controversial theory. Just calling out that the implications of the parent's comment strike me as unintuitive.)

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#28

Post by golergka »

> what do members of a society owe to one another?

> we should consider whether we would be content to live the lives that the least fortunate in our society actually live

Stopped reading right there, because it's a complete non sequitur. People only owe one another what they have contractual obligations for; claiming that you owe to provide any kind of minimal standard of living for another person just because he also happens to live in the same society as you is completely absurd and deeply immoral.

Now, I agree that being charitable and thinking about others is moral, and that people who enjoy very comfortable lives without giving anything back to the community can be frowned upon. However, there is critically important distinction between doing something out of your own free will and our of obligation.

I always defend Nazis, who openly advocate for killing me and my family, right to free speech, and I would always defend the property rights of the heartless and greedy. Not because I want to condone this behaviour, but because no morality can be more important than personal freedoms.

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#29

Post by golergka »

127 wrote: post #18

Men aren't built to be happy. Men are built to be effective.

People, as any animals, aren't build "for" anything. Evolution doesn't have a brain or intentions, it's just a stochastic process that happens to prefer some traits over others in certain circumstances.

Re: What Is a Minimally Good Life?

#30

Post by 127 »

golergka wrote: post #29
127 wrote: post #18

Men aren't built to be happy. Men are built to be effective.

People, as any animals, aren't build "for" anything. Evolution doesn't have a brain or intentions, it's just a stochastic process that happens to prefer some traits over others in certain circumstances.

Evolution as a dynamic does build things that are able to reproduce.
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