Do you ever wonder...

[pigman]

Do you ever wonder if the western culture we live in is the right way?
Work more, eat more, spend more.... do this culture bring out the best of people?

I read that people in smaller undeveloped islands is a lot happier that people in our developed countries. So what is everyone working so hard for?

Just a thought!

 

[WeBuyThe.Com]

Working hard to buy a one way ticket to Vanuatu
http://www.pacificislands.cc/pina/pinadefault2.php?urlpinaid=23276

 

[pigman]

Its not where but how we live that matters.

 

[eq78]

THAT's you're opinion

 

[Preoccupy]

No Pain, No Gain !

Happiness come from your heart !

 

[italiandragon]

www.australia.com


You guys get out from the Cities....take a break....enjoy the Sunshine...the Beach....the Beer....

 

[why123]

people live in developed area need more, so they have to work more. they work more for things that in high value to them, or maybe in an simple form, they are desires.

well, people in rural or live in undevelopled area too, have desires, but those are simple ones. they don't need much to fulfill their desires, food, a simple house, and they will must happier than those people who live in cities, or developed areas. simply b/c they need less!

one thing i found really interesting is that " the more civillized a place is, the more complex people will think, and that follows the more worries, and the more rules need to follow, the more unfree a society is".

 

[pigman]

And in this society we have companies 24/7 working on creating new desires, just to get us to consume more and more.

I have nothing against developement, but a lot of this is just pointless and only make people unhappy.

 

[Ian]

capitalism rules!

 

[Duckinla]

I think that working hard, or seeming to do so, makes people feel important.

 

[pigman]

Duckinla if we just can keep people so busy working they will forget what they are working for ;D

 

[VioxxLawyers]

You can live the simple life wherever you are, no authority told you to work, you do it to maintain a decent living standard. Quit your job, sell your belongings, and move to a trailer. You'll eat food from your garden and make 10 kids. No one is stopping you from doing just that. Good luck man, bc you will need it!
Poor ppl can be happy when they are isolated and dont know how people live in the Western world. In Africa or Eastern Europe, i dont know too many people happy to be poor, especially among the youth
Ask Mr Deleted (former Amish) how is life in the old World. :blabla:

BTW huge difference between a vast poor country or a small poor community of people. Mexico can't be compared to some offshore 200 000 people strong island. And Luxemburg/Monaco can't be compared to Germany and France.

 

[pigman]

You are missing the point. Why shall people that live in countries with better conditions have more worries and be more stressed than people in countries with worse conditions.

People just want more and more, desires are taking over their lives.

 

[Duckinla]

I really think the dynamics of population have a lot to do with this. As someone said above, don't make the mistake of comparing poor large countries to poor small countries. Wealth is relative. The poorest in the U.S. are somewhat wealthy by historical and global standards...but not compared to their neighbors. In Oregon Hondas and Toyotas are just fine...not in Southern California.

In a small population there are very few examples of relatively wealthy individuals for a person to compare themselves to. Also there is very little opportunity to acheive wealthy status. In a large population you interact with wealthy people everyday and you are surrounded by opportunity just from the sheer size of the population. If you could get a dollar from every person on your desert Island you might have $3,000 (and nothing to spend it on). If you could get a dollar from every person in Los Angeles county, you might have $7 million and and whole lot of things to do with it.

I think many are driven by the realization that there is a lot of opportunity out there that they are not tapping into.

 

[Tia Wood]

We are forced to work harder or we starve.

 

[pigman]

Duckinla I dont not think the majority of people is driven by the feeling of opportunity. They are driven by the feeling of desire, which is in most cases artificial.

 

[MrDude]

I would much rather be here in the developed world than in some country where i am not given a proper education, where I dont have the oppurtunity to do something great with my life. My life is great at the moment and allthough things arent 100% how i'd like them to be i couldnt wish for anything more in life right now. The reason they are so happy with so little is they have always had so little and dont know anymore!

 

[whitebark]

I live near Vancouver and it is always ranked as one of the most desirable places in the world to live. But is it really? Average house price is over $400,000 in the burbs, traffic is nonsense, pollution is rising, cost of living always seems to outpace what we actually take home and the winters while mild could be nicer.

So if this city is always one or two, I would hate to see what the lower ones are like!

As for our 'style' of living in the western world - it is not sustainable over the long term. 2006 is already shaping up to the be hottest on record. It keeps getting hotter and it keeps getting hotter faster each and every year. Our natural resources are being depleted for the here and now, our oceans are being over-fished and polluted, the forests are being stripped bare, we pave over prime farming land and for what? Profits today over the future generations? We can't keep that up.

Canada a country with rather strict environmental regulations has a cancer epidemic, and childhood asthma is going through the roof. We need to see where we are going here, and it is not pretty.

Well the end of oil will smack us in the Western world much harder than those already living without. We best learn to live like them.

And yes I do work for the Green Party!

 

[Duckinla]

I dont not think the majority of people is driven by the feeling of opportunity. They are driven by the feeling of desire, which is in most cases artificial.

I'm still going to argue that when you dig a little deeper it's the idea of missing opportunity and not fulfilling our potential for success that drives most people. We don't like to see people that we believe are less capable than us doing better than us. It's a competitive drive, not just a desire to own things. Owning things is more often a way of showing how well we are doing in the competition. If the people around us are at XX level of success, then it's ok to be there as well. If the people around us are at X,XXX level of success, then we want to be up there as well and we want others to know it. The more opportunity we live in, the more likely people will be at X,XXX level of success and we will be driven to be there as well.

Anyone overly worried about the comming global warming, you may take some comfort from no longer worrying about Time magazines "comming ice age".

http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/printout/0,23657,944914,00.html

 

[why123]

And in this society we have companies 24/7 working on creating new desires, just to get us to consume more and more.

I have nothing against developement, but a lot of this is just pointless and only make people unhappy.

yes, i am totally agree with you. but we can't stop working and we have to follow the stream of desires, we can't go to a different direction of where the stream's going to, right? but, i do want to have a simple life, where i can think less, less pressures. for many people work so hard for the whole life for money, or status, and what will you have remain after you finish your life？ work so hard and suffer more while you are trying to claimbing to high status, why not just be simple, and be happier? the result of that is the combination of desires and responsibilities to your surroundings.

maybe we can have a simple life after we retired...:heh: