Why Is Everyone So Miserable?

[Backseat Economist]

Why are people so miserable?

What have they got to look forward to?

We have been conditioned to work and pay taxes for the basics in life, a home, food, family nothing wrong with that. At the rate things are going when we finaly get to retirement age, who knows what age that will finaly be, we will drop dead with high blood pressure. What then will we have to show for it?

People need to behave less as herds and more as free autonomous individuals.

Essentially we need to change the way how everthing works - and it what way.

And by everything I mean EVERYTHING!!!

Less government, bureaucracy, advertising and programming. :angry:

More creativity, innovation, free thinking and social support.

The most basic though is clearly the money supply system - that's the root of the problem. IMO.

Like your sig BTW. Sums it up nicely.

GT.

[MarkG]

At the rate things are going when we finaly get to retirement age, who knows what age that will finaly be, we will drop dead with high blood pressure. What then will we have to show for it?

Indeed. Modern life is no life worth living for many people, if not most... why does anyone expect them to be happy?

[Guest Shedfish]

Well in the City (square mile) a large percentage of us just got our bonus's and most people seem happy right now that I see

can i touch you?

[Backseat Economist]

babararacoocoodada!

Errr........eh?

Oh, I geddit......

GT.

[LargelyIgnorant]

Well in the City (square mile) a large percentage of us just got our bonus's and most people seem happy right now that I see

Well done, you! It's good to see that GS finally started paying their cleaners properly.

[Backseat Economist]

Hmm - have to say if i havent noticed it.

Well in the City (square mile) a large percentage of us just got our bonus's and most people seem happy right now that I see

I'm so happy for you....

GT.

[Guest grumpy-old-man]

It's weird - I walk to work everyday, takes about half an hour or so, get to walk along the river and then through the Cumberland Basin, which is a beautiful stretch of closed water just off the centre of Bristol. By the time I get to work, I've fully woken up, or, by the time I've got home, have switched off ready to go and do some fitness, swimming, whatever. A few things to note - no one talks, everyone just walks and is either tuned into their i-pod or speaking on the phone - even couples are doing separate things rather than chatting to each other. Everyones' rushing, no one seems to stroll or amble. It's all power walking. Everyones' late, pressured, rushed for time, got up late whatever. Secondly, no ones' smiling or even bothering to look around at what's going on - everyone just seems a bit, well, glum, as if their walking under a cloud. Those people who are in cars going past everyone - well, their going slower than us, because their all in queues, especially if it's raining and windy. They also seem in a bit of a pickle, talking away with bluetooth, or idly sitting drumming their fingers on the steering wheel, looking impatient etc etc. Everyone appears miserable, stressed, dissatisfied. Even back around 2000/01, it wasn't like this - things were definitely easier, you could feel/sense it.

People are more miserable now because their exposed to more marketing/advertising PR, VI spin and have been sucked into the vortex of wanting more not less, being happy with who you are - what's important has been lost. :angry: I was talking to a friend of a friend last week, and she was saying that when she gets home from work as a pharmacist, she goes to cookery class, then, later in the evening does salsa, and then has italian/spanish lessons during the week as well as train for a half marathon. It's like the 80's yuppies disease has struck again, but this time it's defined by doing everything of any value morning, noon and night outside of work as well as being good in your job too, and having a good social life. Oh, and you must live in a good area, or in an upcoming one with loads of young people going into it.

The one thing I hear more than ever from friends at the end of the week, is, "I'm knackered/shattered/haven't slept enough/drunk too much/got a hangover/feel depressed. No one is getting anywhere, everyones' running to stand still and that is not the sign of a good life for anyone.

If things are this tough for people now, what happens when the economy turns in on itself? People talk about rioting - not so sure about that, most will simply not have the energy to do that, they'll be destroyed emotionally and physically.

GT.

nice post. My thoughts exactly!

[tahoma]

Is it just me, or has raging bull just unintentionally epitomised everything that is wrong with our so-called culture?

[winkie]

Well in the City (square mile) a large percentage of us just got our bonus's and most people seem happy right now that I see

Happy you got a big bonus, how many properties will you buy with that then?

Money will always make some people happy, maybe thats all they have got.

[Ash4781]

Money shouldn't make people happy.

It's only paper, metal and numbers on the screen!

Edited March 24, 2007 by Ash4781

[winkie]

Money shouldn't make people happy.

It's only paper !

Should start up as a printer.

[bear call spread]

can i touch you?

Well done, you! It's good to see that GS finally started paying their cleaners properly.

Ha Witty. But from my time contracting at Goldman Sachs Bonus time is December/January.

I'm so happy for you....

GT.

Cheers

Edited March 24, 2007 by ragingbull

[Backseat Economist]

nice post. My thoughts exactly!

Thanks. Just glad that I can see it.

Shame no one else around me can though.

I really do feel like the odd one out sometimes.

GT.

[winkie]

Thanks. Just glad that I can see it.

Shame no one else around me can though.

I really do feel like the odd one out sometimes.

GT.

No you are the sane one, it's the rest that are insane, they will learn, but it takes time.

[Backseat Economist]

Cheers

Hmm - clearly you appear to have trouble understanding the concept of "sarcasm".

Obviously, assessment of your bonus payment ignored the module entitled "emotional intelligence".

GT.

[Mrliberty]

I disagree. I see a vast amount of seething resentment here in the UK which only needs something to funnel it outwards. Why do you think the government are so desperate for ID cards and all the other police state crap?

Too true. If you read through some of the legislation that has been passed in recent years, much of it draughted before 9/11, there can only be one reason for having it - terrorism has nothing to do with it. It's about creating a "compliance" society, where the masses do and think what they are told. Monitor and control a society enough, and when everyone realises all is not as it seems, no one will be in a position to kick off about it.

I particularly like this quote;

Let us consider, my lords, that arbitrary power has seldom or never been introduced into any country at once. It must be introduced by slow degrees, and as it were step by step, lest the people should see its approach. The barriers and fences of the people's liberty must be plucked up one by one, and some plausible pretences must be found for removing or hoodwinking, one after another, those sentries who are posted by the constitution of a free country, for warning the people of their danger. When these preparatory steps are once made, the people may then, indeed, with regret, see slavery and arbitrary power making long strides over their land; but it will be too late to think of preventing or avoiding the impending ruin.

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, to the House of Lords in 1737

[Guest Charlie The Tramp]

I have known many City guys the past 25 years. As the downturns came they trotted off to the City in the morning with what they thought was a bright future, returning in the evening with their future uncertain. Come the following boom they were no longer required as bright young blood took up the newly created jobs.

The good life can suddenly change like the wind.

[winkie]

I have known many City guys the past 25 years. As the downturns came they trotted off to the City in the morning with what they thought was a bright future, returning in the evening with their future uncertain. Come the following boom they were no longer required as bright young blood took up the newly created jobs.

The good life can suddenly change like the wind.

Grab it while you can because it will not last forever, but spend it wisely.

[Woot]

Money shouldn't make people happy.

It's only paper, metal and numbers on the screen!

... and all the trappings that they bring, starting with a roof over your head. Try saying it's only paper to your average street sleeper! Although maybe money don't buy you love

[winkie]

... and all the trappings that they bring, starting with a roof over your head. Try saying it's only paper to your average street sleeper! Although maybe money don't buy you love

Shame, but you can't live on love, but it helps.

[Pablo-silver or lead?]

The gass is always greener......................

Many wage slaves saddled with an omnipresent sense of “so much more of life’s millstone to tread”, ahead of them in Britain. View a life in the sun with rose tinted glasses, as if to blind. This rose tinted view is encouraged and enhanced by the polar opposites of what people want to escape from and what they believe they are escaping to.

The question is what sort of people are leaving? Well it seems everyone really, no doubt seduce by the grass is greener promises of the lifestyle media, ably lead by Channel 4’s ‘A Place in the Sun’ and ‘Pay off your mortgage in a Year’ (by seemingly trebling it to buy over priced property abroad on the assurance of a commissioned sales person that it’s a good investment, Doh!!!). BBC 2 runs Channel 4 a close second with their ‘Get a new Life!’ try before you buy emigration program. The people leaving can be loosely categorised into three groups broadly defined by age.

Firstly we have the twenty to early thirty age group. This group has little equity in property (or in some cases just the frothy, ephemeral equity of the last few years), little savings and in many cases carry substantial debts. They can be broadly sub divided into two groups, ‘U’ and ‘non U’. Many of the ‘U’ ones have only gone to university as part of New Labour’s social experiment to drastically increase the percentage of school leavers going in to higher education. They’ve attended university in the hope of obtaining a degree that will increase their value in the jobs market sufficiently to allow them to repay their accumulated debts before they retire at 75. Then there’s the ‘non U’s, that haven’t fecklessly wasted their time borrowing money to fund, ten a penny new fangled Media Studies qualification or the like. Instead they have been moving between the meaningless, low skill and poorly paid service sector jobs. Seemingly the number of which, our increasingly consumerist and globalised society creates ad-infinitum. Although working and earning, this second group have not escaped contributing to this country’s huge personal debt mountain. Unfortunately they’ve earned just enough to gain a credit rating sufficient to run up huge credit and store cards debts. These people are now having to compete even harder for the ‘Macjobs’, with Poles and Latvian’s. Take a look on some of the immigration, expat and debt help web forums and you’ll find many questions like this. “I left university two years ago with debts that are accumulating rapidly. I’ve found difficulty in obtaining a job commensurate with my academic achievements” (no one told them that it would be a struggle to get a graduate job on £30,000 a year with the likes of Citicorp, BP or McKinsey et al, with a double first in Appalachian clog dancing and modern Macramé Weaving from acme chavsville poly!). “Also my boyfriends on minimum wage and has unsecured personal debts of £12k. As we can’t afford property in the UK, we’re thinking of moving to Aya Napa, Cyprus as we like the club scene, will our creditors come after us?’!!!!”

This government is belatedly trying to reverse it’s misguided policy of university education for all, by hiking up tuition fee’s to levels that make the prospective accumulated debts outweigh any potential benefits. After all who wants to start life with a £25k millstone of debt around their neck? With average property prices approaching £200k, rapidly rising living costs and an average wages of around £20k taking home ownership out of the reach of a generation. Whilst at the same time they’re being told to save more, for longer, for a lower pension. With real wage growth being suppressed by fiddled inflation figures, and an open door immigration policy which is flooding the country with cheap Eastern European labour. A whole generation are being disenfranchised by a bunch of media spin doctoring, politically correct, celebrity struck, champagne socialistas, unfettered by an effective opposition. If you think the Poles and Latvians will work for peanuts wait until the Bulgarians, Romanians and Moldavians arrive!

I could go on............

Pablo Silver or Lead?

[Guest grumpy-old-man]

Thanks. Just glad that I can see it.

Shame no one else around me can though.

I really do feel like the odd one out sometimes.

GT.

yes, my wife & I feel the same. People always seem to have a motive or want something from you don't they, instead of just being happy & genuine.

speak soon.

[winkie]

Pablo, I like your style, I feel a whole generation has been sucked into the idea that if you get a huge mortgage to buy an overpriced property you will be set up for the rest of your life, like past generations. Equity,equity,equity=Money,money,money. But it's different this time, they have been swindled, the more you owe the harder you have to work to pay for it. This country needs people to borrow, the more they borrow, the more taxes they pay, your freedom is then countermanded. An Englishmans home is his castle, and we will do almost anything to achieve that goal.

[bugged bunny]

Thanks. Just glad that I can see it.

Shame no one else around me can though.

I really do feel like the odd one out sometimes.

GT.

I can identify with what you've so eloquently said.

I live in Bristol too, probably not far away from you by the sound of it - so you are not alone. I shall look out for your cool motor!

[winkie]

I can identify with what you've so eloquently said.

I live in Bristol too, probably not far away from you by the sound of it - so you are not alone. I shall look out for your cool motor!

Bristol City, they are going up