Sunday, January 29, 2012
So You Think Money Can Buy Happiness...?
Skiing or the Caribbean? Well…we went skiing in the Swiss Alps for Christmas break so how about Bora Bora for spring break. Sometimes it feels like everyone always has more than you. Many people believe that the more money you have the better, happier, more perfect life you lead. Having more money looks better on the outside. Clothes, they have the best. Accessories, so many options. They can live anywhere in any home; usually there is more than one. Being able to buy a new car at the drop of a hat, again, usually more than one. Brand names and high prices is what the rich live for. Is beauty on the outside really happiness on the inside? To the average person living a modest lifestyle, the life of the rich looks easy. Perhaps their bias comes from jealousy, envy or ignorance. From their bias comes dislike toward the wealthy that may actually be nice people. There is a tendency to make rude remarks, jokes or comments about what the rich are perceived to have. Do most wealthy people have material items? Yes. I understand that the outward appearance of the wealthy makes it seem that there are never any problems and life is perfect. I also understand that being wealthy doesn’t make someone automatically good, bad, happy, rude, etc. You can’t like everyone but you don’t know who someone truly is until you get to know them. Why let where someone lives and what he or she wears determine what potentially lies on the inside.
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When we discussed this in class, I liked how we both, in a way, wrote about opposite sides of this bias. I wrote about how I think homeless people do not do anything for themselves, and expect others to provide money for them. I would agree that a solution to that bias and yours would be to look deeper than just the outside appearance. While rich people may appear happy with their wealth, they could be struggling with debt or working too hard to find any time to spend with the family. At the same time, there are homeless people that are too sick or injured to find work for themselves. Examples like these hopefully help us broaden our views and diminish our biases because they provide a look into both sides of a situation.
ReplyDeleteMeg:
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic, especially in an election year and time when people are still busy discussing the 1% and 99% (see "Occupy Wall Street" protests).
Can you give a specific example you can give? Maybe an example of an anti-wealth bias?