RE: The Good Billionaire
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Why are the peoples of many countries that aren't as rich often happier?
I think the answer to this is that many people from the collective society get their happiness mainly from relationships and being part of communities. Most of the poor, if not all, tend to have lower IQ and seem to derive happiness from having too many children. Machismo still exists in traditional societies. While those from individualist or modern societies get their happiness from achievement, security, wealth, etc. And because they have higher IQ, they become more self-absorbed too. This is also one reason people from these countries, having almost what they need (privilege, structural advantage, comfort and security) tend to have high cases of depression. The wiser you get, the lonelier you become. We can't do it alone.
One of my favorite quotes of all time,
Behind every great fortune lies a great crime. Honore de Balzac
So maybe, a good billionaire exists but at what cost?
Inconvenient truth .😊
It depends on which culture or on what kind of knowledge you have when it comes to being happy or depressed with your wealth or poverty. In enlightened cultures a wise person would have such deep insight that they needed no luxuries, renounced their wealth even because they had a potent capacity for consciousness and depth of realization into the nature of life and reality. Such a person can access bliss, without the dependency on material luxuries or even the need for a social community for comfort. That is a rare level of consciousness of course, but ultimately bliss is internal. And depth of realization allows one to access bliss without the need for people or money. The need to collect more money or people to feel happy is due to lack of real knowledge as well as deliberate poor training by our elite who want to keep us as ignorant slaves to consumerism.
Thank you @diabolika for another great response :-) I agree with your analysis of the problem, that is if you agree that the lower IQ among the poor is a result of their socioeconomic circumstances. And I would say that the solution can be found in changing those circumstances, by working towards a system that produces more equity, a more level playing field, you know, "equality of opportunity" and all that. Such a system would, within the capitalist framework, always amount to income redistribution from top to bottom, from taxing the living daylights out of the billionaire class and capitalists. Billionaires shouldn't exist, is the inconvenient truth in my opinion ;-)
I agree of course. And I feel like they are made to stay at the bottom by the stronger forces.