Be Better than Happy
Have you ever heard the comment about relationships that “it’s better to be happy than be right”? It sounds plausible, but it application it’s a problematic fantasy. Asking two quarrelsome parties to forfeit trying to prove their point and just acquiesce to the other is like asking wolves to wear sheepskins and bleat. They pretend [...]
July 5th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Is happy poverty better than rich stress?
What do you think? Are people with lots happy? Are people with little sad? Or is it the other way around?
July 5th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
People with lots are happier
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Why is it that poor people always think (hope) that rich people are unhappy?
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
people with very little tend to be the happiest. material goods do noboday any good
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I’ll opt for the rich stress unless of course I don’t know any better or choose to live on less…
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I’d like abit more dosh; but hey, wouldn’t we all!
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Happy poverty??? What planet are you on?
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Money and wealth does not make you happy.
Being poor and skint makes you envious but not unhappy surely.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
You’ve kind of misquoted your own question! Yes I do believe happy poverty is better than rich stress (after all, if you’re stressed you can’t enjoy your wealth because you’re too busy doing what it is you do to get stressed in the first place)!!
However, if "people with lots" are merely "people with lots" and not stressed people with lots then I believe they might find it easier to enjoy the things they have but that’s not to say people with little are sad! Some people don’t strive after consumerist ideals etc etc and so are perfectly happy with the little they have!!!
Do you follow that?!??!?!
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Both parties have their stress.
When you’re rich, you have more debt, more sleepless nights.
When you’re poor, you’re worried about how you’re going to pay for everything. A simple weekly shop can set off an anxiety attack.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
being happy is always better than being stressed; however, I think that the person under poverty would be more stressed and less happy. if you find yourself to be impoverished and still happy, i think your a unique person, in that you can make the most of any situation and have a good attitude, and i think you could handle being happy while poor ( or rich) depending on which you would rather deal with.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Yes, definitely. It’s okay to be penniless but happy. Now can you spare me some change?
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
My husband and I have chosen to work jobs that we really enjoy (that don’t particularly pay well) rather than work in jobs that give us a lot of money but no personal satisfaction. We have had times when it’s been a struggle to survive on very little money, but we are both really really happy with our life the way it is. I truly believe that the best things in life are free, and I’m at my happiest when sitting around listening to some fantastic music in company with my lovely husband, or going for an evening stroll in the country. Having said that, I wouldn’t complain if I won the lottery! Having more money would make our lives easier, but I don’t believe that any amount of money would make us any happier than we already are - not possible!
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Anyone who says, they are happy, when their kids are hungry, the bills are mounting or power, phone, water is being cut off, are being throw into the street to live in a car or cardboard box. Is full of crap. You have a much better outlook and optimism if you have enough to support your family and a little extra. The problem is most people don’t know what impoverished really is. They think if they have to pack a lunch to work they are poverty stricken, or if they are on the dole, they think they are poverty stricken. Think about feeding your kids out of a dumpster, cuddling up in a refridgerator box for the night. Do you think that would make you happy.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I believe the more money you have - the more you miss it when its gone! If you buy something big and flashy, you’ll have to buy something even bigger and flashier to feel the same high out of buying it. You’ll end up having to work harder and harder to have more money to keep up with your spending, it all causes a never ending stress of not having enough. You’ll always want more.
I think the simpler you live your life the more content you’ll be in the long run. Obviously being in poverty isn’t a barrel of laughs, but as long as you had enough money for basic survival i think you would live a very contented life. No TV, no newspapers, no internet, no celebrities, no wishing that you had more money, cut off from the rest of the world just you and some villagers on a tropical island - amazing!
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I’d go for happy poverty every time. I do not envy or dislike the rich, but i am an environmentalist and I do dislike the damage thier mony can do.
Anybody who disbelieves happiness and poverty just don’t go together look to Malawi, Uganda or, I suspect, many other developing countries.
With money goes power, and with power, responsibility. I don’t think most humans are phycologically designed for prolonged periods of responsibility.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I think that most people are happy and sad throughout their lives regardless of their financial status. Money comes with its own responsibilities and rewards which can give you pleasure and stress, just like other things which can be earned and achieved in live.
Individual happiness is generally acquired by achieving things which mean a lot to you. For some it could be money, for others love, and others knowledge.
Therefore if having money means so much to you, then it’s acquisition will make you happy.
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A lifetime of pursuing what I desire, and being (generally) happy.
July 5th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Who said rich is not haPPY….i know a lot of poor are stress
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
That is an interesting question. I was raised in an upper middle class family and I have seen plenty of people with money who are miserable. I had a friend when I was a teenager whose mother slit her wrists when outwardly it seemed like she had everything to live for. I don’t make much, I am a CNA, and my sister is an attorney and my other sister married money. I think there is a difference between outright poverty and making little though. No one wants to live in poverty wondering how they will pay their bills and how they can get along. I think if a person like me who makes little money but has a good life and can afford to pay the bills is better off than the idle wealthy who sit around and wonder what they should do with themselves. Absolute poverty is miserable for everyone, no question about that. On the whole, I would say the average person who can meet their bills and has a good support system and a family that cares about them is better off than someone who is rich and stressed. I know that a lot of people think money can buy happiness, but in a lot of cases it can’t.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
If you are truly happy, it matters not if you are rich or poor, if you are unhappy, being poor make it less tolerable.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I believe that poverty is having less than enough , which would hardly be a happy situation. The saddest people that I know of are extremely rich & frightened to spend . That’s how they got rich !.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I would opt for rich happiness if it were an option. By the way, hapiness is subjective, relative and very nonquantitative. The happiest of the people do not necessarily have the best of everything, but they make the most of everything thus coming their way. Neither poverty nor riches are destined to bring stress, but both are likely to. But if these terms are given phenomena- "happy poverty" vs "rich stress" then by all means take anything that has happiness in it.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I think happy poverty would likely to be the best as if you are happy then thats what should really matter! money will never buy happiness!
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
i think that there are happy and sad people whether they are rich or poor. i would rather be happy and have little, happiness is everything, and money doesn’t buy that, yea maybe in the short term you’ll be happy but not always.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
People with lots of money sometimes spend it on anything they want and end up in massive amounts of debt. When you’re poor, you learn to be wise with what little you have.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Happiness is always more healthy and more stable than stress, not matter what causes the stress.
I think it depends on the person and how they handle the responsiblities of having money or the delima of not having it. I have seen sad wealthy people and sad poor people. I would prefer to be happy and broke than sad and rich. Of course, my best case scenario is a happy and super rich but that is just not the case for me LOL.
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
rich peple,
say famous people are not happier,
their lives are better, they own and buy lots of things, they feel ‘they are better and higher than other people
but they are certainly not happier
look at the lot of them,
drugged up, plastic surgery till they dont recognise themselves
adopting african babies left right and center
protesting about aids and world peace and poverty
they use all that to feel good about themselves, happy and fulfilled
but they never do
this is why they keep doing it
because they never feel the fulfillment for long, then they need more, to feel more fulfillment
rich heiresses, etc,
well im sure some of them are happy, but i’m sure equally some of them are not
as they are still people
who have people problems, like illness, and death,
things that unite us
however they can afford the best treatment for such things like illness which then makes it unequal and their life happier
also as they didnt earn their wealth by themselves they again dont feel the fulfillment that someone who works for their money does
im reasonably poor, its not fun, i am not happy about that,
but i am happy with myself, who i am, i’m
just unhappy with my ‘lot’ in life
i can safely say i will never be ‘happy’ with lots of shoes and clothes,
i will feel ‘happier’, life will be more enjoyable,
but they will not take away things like death of a loved one or illness
BUT
how i long for the day i dont need to worry how much my overdraft is, or what bills i have to pay and how much, about saving for a new pair of shoes and then saving for something else needed
it would be so much better easier and less stress to just get what you need when you need it without it causing money troubles
poor people certainly appreciate small things much more than rich people,
rich people are used to the small things,
like a new tv, or their fave pair of shoes
they will never learn to appreciate that,
no matter what they say, because they can get it any time they want
this is what leaves them feeling so unfulfilled
because the small things that the rest of us average people put hopes on, they get with little effort when we work for it, and that coat we saved up for means a hell of a lot to us, getting that new tv or sofa even if you are paying it on credit or saved for a few months going without other things to get it, will be a satisfying end
thats the real difference, not the money its self nor the items you own, but what it means to you
money and items will never bring ‘inner happiness’ to anyone, it just makes life easier, and gives you opportunities and chances you wont get when you are poorer and thats the main problem, thats the great divider
also its a fine line
the standard or poor is stereotypical as one person says ‘eating out of a dumpster, sleeping in a cardboard box’
well
im afraid i have to disappointed you
that is only one version of poor
there are several levels
from destitute
to borderline
to doing ok but any moment it could break
just because someone isnt homless doesnt mean they are NOT poor
many and most people live on a borderline
are in credit and debt to own the things they do
a lot of people get given half their furniture and evne clothes
and a lot of people shop in the local charity shops for things
i know when we started out thats how we lived
everything we owned was donated by family and friends because we couldn’t afford it
including our bed, tv, and dining table
and if anything happened to them, thats it
we would be without until someone else gave us another
we had and still have no sofa because they are just too expensive
and we NEVER want to use credit no matter what
so dont assume that because someone has a home, and ‘things’ that they are not poor
they may well have been given most of their furniture and clothes
and may pay their only money towards keeping their ‘roof over their head’
and or the government pays that for them
whether you are able to survive without donations would be the tester
and even then, as i said, poor is on several levels
seeing only the stereotype of poor, just makes you seem ignorant to real life around you,
which is most people just getting by
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
"We was poor but we was ‘appy" is a false statement..
It is true that poverty is relative, the augment being that, with food in the belly, adequate clothes on the back and a roof over the head and good companionship is not poverty and therefore a person in this state can be very happy.
A man with many possessions becomes so worried about losing them he is not necessarily particularly happy.
The best is a man somewhere in between, but even he may not be happy.
A feeling of happiness can only come from contentment and that is often a matter of personal disposition
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July 5th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
All depends on the person, some people are just miserable because its their nature.
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July 5th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
No not necessarily. I have been both and rich is better but then I am happy in life and my family and friends .. but I do still have fond memories of those ‘good ole days’! J
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July 5th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Ive been there done it… but in the end my health, and well being came first and i gave up my own business, home, car,and money for a doss house, eventually flat, but freedom is good it done wonders for me I found a whole new world, well England, still dont have much on the material side but have a wealth of goodies inside, and after all thats where we experience our life isnt it, from the INSIDE, not the space next to you.
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self
July 5th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Depends on the person, some people will never be content no matter how much they have in the bank. Although most people would prefer to have enough money behind them that they DON’T have to struggle day to day.
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July 5th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Sod poverty ,RICH WINS
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July 5th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
The UK has no official definition of poverty, no poverty line. Researchers define the poverty line themselves usually in terms of what basics are met or income (some say less than 50% of the median income is poverty). So our definition of poverty is relative. People live in poverty in the UK, but only because it is relative poverty and the standards are higher around people in poverty. We have a very small share of people in absolute poverty, too, but only small. Absolute poverty is where the basics of life are not met. Many African countries have a problem with absolute poverty, for example, because medical care is not provided and people are desperately short of food and clean water.
So I have two answers for you:
1. Happy relative poverty is probably better than being rich and stressed.
2. (There can be no such thing, but) happy absolute poverty is a lot worse than being rich and stressed.
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Global studies course.
July 5th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
‘better is a poor but a wise child than a rich and foolish king’
(proverbs)
it is possible to have too little and also possible to have too much - best to have neither too much or too little
happiness is a state of mind not a bank balance
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July 5th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
No
I would be sad and stressed if I was living in poverty
I would rather be rich
I would not be stressed if I was rich
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