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It’s worth noting that this applies to most people, not just the ones “at the top”.
Huh, I wonder if Capitalism is a systemic issue and perhaps incentivizes greed
I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to be the guy to say that people are only greedy under capitalism.
No, but there’s a big difference between a societal paradigm that overrides natural human compassion with, well, the exact opposite and then incentivizes the entire population to participate, or a society in which greed is greed rather than some overarching be-all end-all goal.
Saying the rich are (just as or even more) unhappy than humans is just rich ppl propaganda, or at best a coping mechanism (‘See, Im better of poor than thev rich, I should be thankful!’).
I’m not going to say that the rich are just as unhappy as the rest of us, because they’ll never know what it is to truly struggle. But take a look at Elon Musk; does he look happy to you? Dude bought and destroyed Twitter because people there wouldn’t stop making fun of him, and he still can’t stop them. He’s driven his daughter out of his life because he can’t accept she’s trans, which has only made him go even more full on transphobe and bleed over into every other bigoted thought under the sun. He just fucking gutted Tesla, his big pride and joy, because he couldn’t stand his “inferiors” talking back to him and trying to stop him from making terrible mistakes. All his victims are undoubtedly struggling more than he is, thanks largely to his capriciousness and evil, but he certainly doesn’t look happy to me.
And the funny thing is, he could be absolutely happy if he could let shit go. If I had his money, I wouldn’t even bother with all this petty shit; I’d hire people to manage the money, put as much of it into charity work as I could, find some tropical island somewhere, and spend the rest of my life sipping on margaritas and watching sunsets. But he can’t help himself. He’s incapable of letting go, which stops him from ever being happy.
He’s not happy, but that’s got little/nothing to do with his money. He’s doing the same things and experiencing the same consequences as a lot of people who fall into the extreme-right. He alianted his family, he’s in trouble at work and he’s blaming everyone and everything but himself. Only difference between him and the qanon conspiracy-brain who got fired from the plant in some small town for saying racist shit on Facebook is that Elon’s wealth and public status means his life falling apart is a public spectacle instead of a private one. That, and the fact that his meltdown impacts a lot more people.
Money actually does buy happiness for most people (up to about $75k USD annually, at which point the correlation fades). I suspect that happiness is a direct result of not feeling like you’re 1 sick day from homelessness, but I don’t think the data is there to support why yet.
Edit: $75k, not 7k
Sure, but that just goes back to the original point - he’s super weirdly obsessed with greed and hate and being a control freak, and will never be happy no matter how much money he has.
Money can’t make you happy, but the lack of money can certainly make you unhappy.
