Screw gdp as a measure of successful cultures.
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When asked towards the end of her life (by an Ivy League Masters researcher) whether the abject poverty of her childhood had made her eventual success all the more enjoyable, Sophie Tucker thought for a second and then replied, “Well kid, I been rich an’ I been poor, an’ trust me, rich is bedder”.
This is fine as far as it goes, in terms of being a bright woman’s response to a dumb élite question. But, as long ago as the late 1970s, researchers were finding that levels of self-assigned happiness in Mega-lottery winners are not significantly different from those of respondents in a control sample.
Some people are glass half-empty, and some are glass half-full. I am very much in the former category, which in our current world is (I suspect) a better way to be, because it helps one expect human waste to hit fans on a regular basis….and thus take avoidance action as necessary. But there are two fundamental questions in play here:
- Does material wellbeing lead to happiness?
- What are the relative roles of genetic inheritance and environmental life experiences in the creation of a contented life?
Infuriatingly, the answer is “it depends” – on three things: how you personally judge happiness, what your parents are/were like, and random highs and lows particular to you in a life that is and always will be a unique experience. Or, as we saw immediately above, money, genes and events.
The good news is, the historical, neuroscientific and socially anthropological data are pretty conclusive. The bad news is, very few people in power have read that body of information, and even the tiny percentage who have don’t always join up the dots.
What makes Benthamism a philosophy and not an ideology is that it does join up the dots, and it does change its mind about what the goal of governments should be.
Jeremy Bentham defined the “fundamental axiom” of his philosophy as, “it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”. Contemporary Benthamites now largely accept that ‘happiness’ as a term is so personal as to be almost meaningless…and that some individual definitions of happiness are deplorably anti-social – for example paedophiles, psychopaths, material obsessives, neoliberal globalist bankers, sadists and other folks worthy of permanent detention.
For myself, I’d redefine the goal of 21st century Government as ‘the greatest fulfilment of the greatest number of law-abiding citizens dedicated to the toleration of all views held in the pursuit of individual freedom and genuine democracy’.
You may have spotted that my expression of Utilitarianism has morphed into an all encompassing anti-weasel vehicle designed to control the likes of both Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson….both of whom I regard as retarded, power-drunk ideologues with intolerantly fixated designs on personal freedom. Were they still around in genuine power politics, it would also stop Antifa, Nick Boles and Harriet Harman from doing anything disturbingly silly. I make no apology for this.
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Now whether we like it or not, the judgement criterion for successful government (and sure as Hell, it isn’t plural, on account of there being only one) is the amount of money various citizens have. This is not, of course, the term used: gdp is the term used. Herewith the problems with that idea:
- What about other criteria like time spent with family, partner, kids, pets and close chums?
- The gdp may look terrific, but is a disparity of wealth greater than that between the Bourbon aristocrats and the Parisan sans culottes in 1786 altogether healthy?
- If I had a Pound for every time I’ve read drivel about the number of millionaires created in the UK since 1979, I’d probably be one of them. But recording that number depends on believing in Trickle-Down Wealth. And no economist with a functional brain today can countenance such a silly idea: it has been disproved a dozen or more times by massive and multivariate research.
- Over and over I hear that the poorest 10% ‘have the same purchasing power as they had in 1992’. Well first off, they only have that status in the perniciously cheating minds of various Chancellors who keep changing the Basket of Goods to make rampant inflation look like deflation; and second, a purchasing power of close to 0% is pretty much the same no matter how many times your deluded measurements multiply it.
In the East End during the first part of the last War, many people had no home, little in the way of entertainment and nothing to look forward to beyond Nazi bombs. Mancunians in the areas surrounding Trafford Park were in the same boat, and the residents of Coventry had an even worse time of it. But people from that time consistently testified that social compassion, “pulling together” and allround generosity have not been equalled in British society since.
Social stability, overall contentment and personal fulfilment have, for the great majority of UK adults, almost nothing to do with material possessions. They may think such things are important, but in research using photographic stimuli, they consistently react most strongly to pictures of holidays, friends, kids, animals and gardens.
Every measure of fulfilment in 2019 is far too one-size-fits-all quantitative. For example:
- Employment, we’re told, has never been higher. But how many workers enjoy their job, feel empowered by it, want more hours and like their employers?
- They may love their homes, but how many of the items in it have been paid for by maxed-out credit? How well do they sleep at night?
- In research studies, citizens regularly give positive answers to questions about diversity, multiculturalism, sexuality, ecological issues and Human Rights. But they often vote in ways that contradict those attitudes, and – in one-to-one qualitative interviews – freely admit that they’re sick of being “told what to think”.
If there aren’t enough of the mass of The People able to afford repurchase, a system demanding constant repurchase will fail. If the definition of contentment is puerile and only minutely relevant, society will become unstable. If the overwhelming percentage of the political class is serving the perverse needs of a few dozen massive Party donors, then the elective system will collapse. And if the familial community aspirations of the proletariat are ignored, patronised or cheated, then the Rule of Law will disappear, and any semblance of civilised culture must collapse.
We are so, so far away from realising this – and so interminably distracted by Brexit – I genuinely fear for my homeland.
As Spike said: Money cannot buy friends, but you get a better class of enemy.
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“In the East End during the first part of the last War, many people had no home, little in the way of entertainment and nothing to look forward to beyond Nazi bombs. Mancunians in the areas surrounding Trafford Park were in the same boat,…”
Anecdotally, I heard the very same from older relatives (and about the 1950s which followed) and the statistical research says the same. I believe peak British happiness was sometime around the middle of the 50s. People had extended families and lived in places where you knew everyone and everyone knew you. They also knew who they themselves were, having not been subjected to the Left’s cultural onslaught of deconstructionism and white guilt.
I’m so glad the greatest generation and many of the baby boomers got the chance to stick it back to the elites via the referendum ; )
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The Health of the Nation or Society should be measured on a scale inversely proportional to the following:
the number of foodbanks up and down the land
the number of homeless/mentally ill humans wandering the streets
the number of children in care homes up and down the land
I could go on..
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Whilst doodling in a notepad when in my early twenties I wrote: “The greatest happiness is achieved, in the completion of the simplest task”.
I have always found that living simply with as few expensive material possessions as possible, most satisfactory. Involving myself in social circles demanding reciprocal dinners and rounds at the bar, have successfully (so far) been studiously avoided.
Am I happy? Well, from living at home as a teenager with my parents in a two up two down terraced North London dwelling, with an outside toilet, no bathroom and a small concrete yard out back, my main pleasure came from the company of a friend or two on our motorcycles, explore, go to a caff, and talk nonsense. I knew nothing of ‘business’, and even less of politics. Happy? Yes, but I longed for countryside, open spaces, and views across fields. I had brick, slate, and neighbours windows.
Gradually and tediously over the years I have moved around the country, married twice, bought a house, sold it, lived afloat, back on land, never been financially wealthy, but seldom in debt, and now rent a small ancient house on a farm with no central heating, a large garden with apple and pear trees in a secluded small hamlet up a dead end road where my nearest neighbour is three hundred yards away. I have views across fields dotted with ancient Oaks and Sycamore, to Wenlock Edge and the Clee Hills beyond.
Am I happy? In one sense – blissfully. In another – less so. As knowledge has been accrued of a world that I was serenely ignorant of even as few as thirty years ago, I have become saddened by the behaviours of fellow mankind. Their constant desire for more than they have, be it gadgets small or large. The desire to compress as much out of life through the want of more with nary a thought of consequences. The lies and deceit of those in power with little or no regard for those who have their pips squeezed to supply same. Then, does Ignorance appear to be bliss.
Such reflections in my dotage do indeed make me most unhappy, and I withdraw, become silent. But then there is the smell of fresh rain on a meadow, of the Buddleia covered in Bees and Butterflies, and views over Shropshire. In part, a strong antidote.
The passing of a lifetime. The passing of an era. Let it pass.
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Perhaps a better measure of the health of a nation or society is GDP per Capita rather than GDP. My favourite radio programme “More or Less” presented an episode which looked at the difference between the two.
As might be expected the Scandinavian countries with a lower GDP had a higher GDP per Capita than the UK. What is quite shocking is that rural Alabama in the USA has a higher GDP per Capita than the UK as well as some other unlikely places.
I think that the Scandinavians embracing of multiculti ideaologies and mass third world migration, may within a generation drive their GDP up (inevitable with a larger population) but drive GDP per Capita down.
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A wise sage once said
“Wealth is relational, not acquisitive”
One of the most thoughtful and inspiring quotes Ive ever read was by attributed to Hafiz, a 14th-century Persian mystic:
“Even After All this time The Sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me.” Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the whole sky.”
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Unfortunately we are in a society were the majority of people in this blighted country are full of CRAP. No Caring, No Respect, No Awareness, No Pride. Too busy on their mobile phones and thinking only of themselves.
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John: Three points to make:
1.i am happy with your re-defined Bthamism.
2. Glass half-empty or half full? Pessimist or optimist? Depends which half of the glass if full or empty. Think about it.
3. You justify your pessimism thus; ” it helps one expect human waste to hit fans on a regular basis”. I heard abourt a former supporter who wanted to punch Boris on the nose. Was this an example of the fan hitting the shit?
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Money does not bring happiness . A man with £18 million pounds is no happier than a man with £10 million pounds !
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It would be false to claim there has not been any trickle-down at all. Millions of people have kept their jobs because of it. But at the same time they have had their real wages squeezed and the overwhelming majority have seen their standards of living drop. Only massive loads of consumer credits and ultra-cheap mortgages have kept up an illusion of superficial prosperity among the middle classes. This debt-fueled prosperity and it’s cursory result, the artificial real estate asset bubble will prove a wolf in sheep’s clothing when the everything-bubble bursts.
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Respect is an important part of being happy or at least content. To many this means having a job that isn’t too stressful but gives a feeling of achievement at the end of the day. And one where you enjoy the company of your colleagues. That is what neo liberalism has taken from the people in Britain and mainland Europe. And America, I suspect.
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Let Them Eat Cake. Anybody
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Will enough fruit and vegetables get through from Spain after Brexit?
Will supermarkets please tell British farmers to pull their finger out?
Needs saying.
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Eating far too much of the wrong foods has a lot do with wellbeing. Diet education is still sorely lacking. Since I voluntarily and completely cut out dairy, eggs and all meats my mental and physical health has soared. The relevant scientific numbers will testify . Quality of life is that I’m back in the driving seat.
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Not only far away, but the ship of the state of things is blowing out to a darker colder sea.
The ancient Chinese chestnut about living in interesting times is upon us …
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Unlike the Romans they have the circuses but seem to not to be providing the bread. To have a hierarchy there needs to a multitude of slaves -that has been achieved. 1984, right here, right now. But as the blessed St. Eric of Cantona might say ” when all the frogs have boiled who will take them to the rich men’s table?”
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Around a quarter of the working population is employed by the government, central or local, directly or indirectly. While many of these jobs are essential, many are not. This represents a huge cost to the country and is largely unproductive. Cost alone is not the only problem. Government makes for a terrible provider, offering one-size-fits-all solutions that are inflexible and immutable, the jobs becoming an end in themself, tend to be slow, cumbersome and expensive and devolve into petty regulation and bureaucratic procedures where innovation and independent action is inhibited at best and banned at worst. Government is always growing, always becoming more controlling and always fixated on social, economic and lately technological engineering. It is also contaminated by political and ideological concerns which trump doing what is actually best at every turn, on the one hand a tool to further enrich the 3% and on the other to redistribute the pitiful wealth of the 97% in the name of equality.
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“But people from that time consistently testified that social compassion, “pulling together” and allround generosity have not been equalled in British society since.”
Whilst the materialistic ‘me, me and nothing but me’ mentality and attitude has undoubtedly proved corrosive, the multiculturalism ‘experiment’ and the extremes of ‘political correctness’ have in my opinion proved to be far more corrosive.
The social compassion of that bygone era surely hinged on genuine community spirit and not the falsehoods of this day and age and the ‘parallel societies’ which have been allowed to spring up and then fester.
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JW, a fine update of Benthamite philosophy and top marks for the use of ‘chums’. Not the least of our problems is our being ruled by cads and bounders with no sense of social responsibility or even noblesse oblige.
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Bounder duly pluralised.
“We are ruled by clocks, lias and fools” G K Chesterton, 1912. JW
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Time and again you do it, JW – you voice my thoughts in a far more coherent form than I could ever manage.
Something I read of Bentham went along the lines of (apologies if it’s not accurate, I can’t find it for the moment), “It is vain to speak about the interests of the community, without understanding what is the interests of the individual”, and it is this simple statement that trips up generations of self-important politicos of every stripe but particularly the socialists.
One thing though, I would not describe Johnson as retarded (Corbyn, yes, but not Johnson) – he displays all the dangerous attributes of an educated sociopath possessed of an uncaring intelligence. Flashman, the “hero” of Jalalabad springs to mind.
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