Why do some envy/hate the rich?

[Ihoe]

@kvnchrist, myrmaad is right, your thesis has little to do with your topic title,

 

 

Fine. If you don't like the way I post here, I won't. return. Enough said. BYE!

Well, everybody has a perception of what they read, and that doesn't make them right. I think your title fully coheres with your mentation.

Maybe Us envying the Rich has to be in line with the sad envying the happy, the ugly envying the handsome. probably because it's not a fractional, but more generalized affair. Invidiousness being the term, is dictated by one's contentment mostly, or self esteem, and when self esteem or contentment are low, it's normal to be envious of another that is by our standards better.

[nosisab]

I read only the OP in this thread because what I have to say about the subject is short. I don't hate the rich although I may abhor the "how" they became so. To those who made fortune in a not undignified way (even if only by my own criteria about what is dignifying and what is the opposite) I have only goodwill.

[Balagor]

I wonder even why should anybody hate the rich? Envy them?

Being an old leftwinger I may dislike some of the systems rich companies stands for, but I would never hate the rich for that,

Even less, why should I envy other people? I am totally content with my self and what I have done.

Envy is a feeling that occurs within people who have not found a satisfactory shelve in live yet.

 

Don´t hate others, you hate your self then. :mellow:

[zegh8578]

kvnchrist, you are VERY touchy... get over your teeny weeny bit of almost-embarassment, and come back to the thread youve made, and people have allready responded to, jeez...

 

chuckfinly, my little list was my take on the "common consensus" out there, not necesarily my own personal opinion. as for the proposed argument, well, like ive said often, if people are willing to pay, they deserve to pay up. where i live, a lot of things cost a ridiculous ammount compared to elsewhere, cus people are very wealthy and willing to pay for it. im not wealthy, so i end up suffering idiotic prices :D

we quite possibly have the most expensive city bus ticket in the entire world, no kidding... and thats not cus of any necesity, but simply cus the bus company has been slowly "testing the waters" steadily pushing the price up, and so far people happily pay.

fast foods are very expensive, taxis are extremely expensive, groceries are among the most expensive in europe - and like most these prices, dont need to be. the price is the result of the conglomerates pushing the prices up juuust to see if they can get away with it. they can, so... obviously, they keep doing it :D

[Balagor]

>snip<

we quite possibly have the most expensive city bus ticket in the entire world, no kidding

>snip.

 

I was about to say; try those in Holland or Denmark

 

 

fast foods are very expensive, taxis are extremely expensive, groceries are among the most expensive in europe

>snip<

Now I believe you´re from DK.

Nothing to envy here. :tongue:

[Marxist ßastard]

Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton wrote a paper on wealth and happiness in 2010 (summary, full article), using data from the 2008 and 2009 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Indexes. Kahneman gave a related TED lecture while that research was underway:

 

He gives away the whole lecture at about 1:30 – happiness is split "between being happy in your life and being happy about your life." The former is your pleasantness of day-to-day emotions; it's called emotional well-being. The latter is your response to the question, "How satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"; it's called life evaluation. The two have a correlation of about 0.5, which is low. So someone can be mired in depression and still reason that their lives are going pretty well – or they can be in perpetual bliss, yet decide after sitting down and evaluating everything that they're a wreck.

 

Okay. So the human brain fails at rationalizing emotion. But whence enters wealth?

 

Kahneman and Deaton's analysis shows that as wealth increases, emotional well-being also increases – but only until you reach a household income of $75,000. Meanwhile, life evaluation increases without limit. For example: The difference between commuting to work on a helicopter and commuting to work on a solid gold helicopter is very small. But every time you step into that gold helicopter, you'll reflect on how much your life must have sucked when you had to settle for the non-gold helicopter.

 

Wait, it gets worse. The effect of wealth on happiness (both types) is significant, but it's much smaller than you'd think. This is due to an effect called adaptation: New income makes you much happier at first, but very quickly your happiness settles back down to a level called your hedonic set-point. This ensures that no matter what you achieve in life, your happiness will remain relatively constant. David Lykken and Auke Tellegen in 1996 put it quite bluntly: Happiness Is a Stochastic Phenomenon; 50% of all variation in happiness is due to genetics.

[grannywils]

I wonder even why should anybody hate the rich? Envy them?

Being an old leftwinger I may dislike some of the systems rich companies stands for, but I would never hate the rich for that,

Even less, why should I envy other people? I am totally content with my self and what I have done.

Envy is a feeling that occurs within people who have not found a satisfactory shelve in live yet.

 

Don´t hate others, you hate your self then. :mellow:

 

 

Once again, Balagor my friend, in my opinion you have gotten it right on the head. Of course I am another "old hippie", and maybe we just see things from a different perspective. Don't know for sure, but anyway, I agree with everything you have said here! :smile:

 

[Aurielius]

I wonder even why should anybody hate the rich? Envy them?

Being an old leftwinger I may dislike some of the systems rich companies stands for, but I would never hate the rich for that,

Even less, why should I envy other people? I am totally content with my self and what I have done.

Envy is a feeling that occurs within people who have not found a satisfactory shelve in live yet.

 

Don´t hate others, you hate your self then. :mellow:

 

 

Once again, Balagor my friend, in my opinion you have gotten it right on the head. Of course I am another "old hippie", and maybe we just see things from a different perspective. Don't know for sure, but anyway, I agree with everything you have said here! :smile:

 

 

 

Dear God another Hippie Love In.....quick where are the riot water cannons when you need them? :whistling:

[Beriallord]

I know for a fact I'd be a lot happier if I was rich. If I could just not do anything productive and go on vacations all the time and see the world, that would be awesome. Imagine just being able to hop on your private jet, on call whenever and just go wherever you want, any time you want just because you feel like it. Right now I'd rather be in the Bahamas, Hawaii or in the South Pacific somewhere.

 

Do I envy being able to do that? Yeah. But that doesn't mean I hold bitter resentment for the people who are able to do that.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Beriallord

[zegh8578]

>snip<

we quite possibly have the most expensive city bus ticket in the entire world, no kidding

>snip.

 

I was about to say; try those in Holland or Denmark

 

 

fast foods are very expensive, taxis are extremely expensive, groceries are among the most expensive in europe

>snip<

Now I believe you´re from DK.

Nothing to envy here. :tongue:

 

close, norway

im willing to bet we easily beat denmark. theres been debate shows often using denmark as a comparison of a price haven compared to here.

danish tourists bring their own groceries, so not to go bankerupt when visiting us

:(