Sort of like hitting your head with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop!
I guess we have a new meme here Economic S&M.
;-)
Ralph
At 06:59 PM 11/11/98 -0330, you wrote:
>
>
>Max M wrote:
>
>> >Add up all the other rich people and your sentence becomes
>> >
>> >"take all the wealth form the rich and make everyone happy for about 1
>> >day."
>>
>> only if you are stupid enough to take it all.
>
>Oddly enough, this may be the optimum way to make rich people happy. As I have
>heard it, studies on happiness show people are happy when features that they
>value are increasing. Someone with a constant one million dollar income is
>likely to report themselves less happy than someone whose income rises from
>10,000 to 20,000. This suggests that getting the rich to start over every
decade
>may maximize their happiness.
>
> I was at a conference this weekend, "Dennett's Philosophy of Mind". (Dennet is
>the author of "Consciousness Explained" and "Darwins Dangerous Idea".) Dennett
>reported on one study of happiness in which the highest scoring group were
>quadriplegics. The "explanation" was that they were starting from a very low
>base, and had long term prospects (with improving technology and all) of steady
>improvement.
>
> If this research is accurate, a rational libertarian should voluntarily give
>away most of their wealth every so often to maximize happiness. The short term
>hit after giving it away is more than compensated for by the long term
>opportunity to rebuild from a low base. It is rather counter intuitive though.
>How convincing would the research need to be for people on this list to adopt
>such a strategy? What would be the economic effects (Robin?)?
>
>--
>Bernard J Hughes bernard@timedancer.com
>Timedancer Systems http://www.timedancer.com
> -- Creative Laziness at its best --
>
>
>
Ralph Lewis, Professor of Management and Human Resources
College of Business
California State University, Long Beach
Long Beach, California
rlewis@csulb.edu http://www.csulb.edu/~rlewis