[Sosfbay-discuss] "The Gospel of Consumerism"

[Wes Rolley]

Michael Fischetti wrote:
> ---------wes     
>
>          there is a whole literature on  whether capitalism delivers happiness and  also on the law of diminishing happiness---- (you get less and less of a buzz with successive purchases until the response is negative because you have to maintain your possessions) 
>
>      mike fischetti
>   
Good question.  Here is a broader one.  Can any economic system deliver 
happiness?

Two thoughts on what can.  One is the well known book / theory called 
"Flow".  Fairly well researched, it holds that people are happiest when 
fully engaged in actually doing something.

The other comes from a novel I am reading now, Crossing to Safety by 
Wallace Stegner.  The narrator of the book considers himself as being an 
"overachiever" but then offers the following... "I suppose that what 
makes hedonists so angry when the think about overachievers is that the 
overachievers, without drugs or orgies, have more fun."

-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024