I’ve been thinking about this for a while.
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen, nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” Good old Wilkins.
We live in a society which panics when the economy falls even a tenth of a percent. We call it Recession. Inflation is a God. Deflation a Demon. Jobs go. Companies fail. Countries go bankrupt.
We are encouraged to buy more, to spend more. We’re lead to believe we must earn more to get it. This is what drives a capitalist economy. It’s a society who’s very survival depends on producing and consuming more each and every year. Yet resources are finite. It has to run aground sometime.
In short, our happiness depends on us having more than we want, in a society that depends on us wanting more than we have.
It’s a recipe for stress, depression and all manner of future clients.
And to satisfy both the film and lyric-ish imperative of this blog, maybe the Ghostbusters had it right; Reverse the Flow:
Maybe happiness really lies in wanting less than you have, not having more than you want.
I’m trying it out.
Within reason, of course. I’m not a monk.
I’ll let you know how I get on…
P.S. This is not quite the mid-week re-blog but the links at the end are good. I’d recommend reading them.