Reply #20: I would have put a couple of those words in quotes

[hfojvt]

hate prosperity or 'prosperity'? What is prosperity? We have learned these days to measure it by per capita GDP. Thus things like wealth distribution and second hand goods and free labor do not count. If I cut my own grass, that does not add to the GDP. If I pay somebody to cut it, then it does (at least if he reports the income). Buy a 2nd hand coat, does not add to the GDP, but a new coat does.

Then there is the aspirin standard. Society produces head-aches (social problems) so people buy aspirin (or spend money trying to fix social problems). And hurrah, buying aspirin adds to the GDP.

What is 'success'? Making lots of money, or helping lots of people? According to theory, people who have lots of money, have it because they helped people and the peoplethey helped gave money as payment for that help. Unfortunately, the reality is that often people are not helping others as much as they are extorting and exploiting others. On the other hand, there are people without power, for example, the working class. They help their employers and get paid for it, but they help far more than they get paid and thus also help their employers to get rich.

As far as telling people how to spend their money. In my view, the winners of the rat race are not necessarily winners, just fast or talented rats. We spend our time on this planet raping it, stressing out, racing, racing, racing, fighting each other, stressing other people out in order to get more money so we can buy more and nicer stuff. Supposedly that is how we 'enjoy life'. Maybe that works for some, but for others the entire process of the rat race is not that enjoyable, and in my view, although the winners may not notice it, it causes alot of our problems and destroys the solidarity that could make life better for all of us. So I am more likely to shake my finger at the 'winners' of the rat race than I am to applaud them. They are typically far more part of the problem than they are part of the solution.