Urban vs. Rural; What's to be done?

[nmoore63]

You guys are so absorbed in your culture war wanking you still haven't actually thought any of this through, like defining your terms or dealing with the economics of divorcing yourselves from where the wealth is generated. Is the unindustrialized, agrarian, antebellum South really your economic model? What state is currently closest to that? Mississippi? Dead last in GDP per capita.

Has the massive boom in wealth over the last 50 years actually made us happier?

[GloryofGreece]

You guys are so absorbed in your culture war wanking you still haven't actually thought any of this through, like defining your terms or dealing with the economics of divorcing yourselves from where the wealth is generated. Is the unindustrialized, agrarian, antebellum South really your economic model? What state is currently closest to that? Mississippi? Dead last in GDP per capita.

Has the massive boom in wealth over the last 50 years actually made us happier?

Decent question, but I'd ask has it made us better? Morally or spiritually? Very doubtful.

[nmoore63]

You guys are so absorbed in your culture war wanking you still haven't actually thought any of this through, like defining your terms or dealing with the economics of divorcing yourselves from where the wealth is generated. Is the unindustrialized, agrarian, antebellum South really your economic model? What state is currently closest to that? Mississippi? Dead last in GDP per capita.

Has the massive boom in wealth over the last 50 years actually made us happier?

Decent question, but I'd ask has it made us better? Morally or spiritually? Very doubtful.

Brewster attempted to make a moral/philosophical question about material wealth.

To me, question such as self determinations are more important than:

"what if self determinations makes you poorer?"
So what.

[Speaker to Animals]

Amen. We should focus on happiness and self-determination.

[brewster]

Your smug dismissal of wealth as a priority is a feature of personally having enough. Most people's unhappiness and distress are from not having enough money for food, shelter and Healthcare. Money doesn't buy happiness, but it sure as hell can get rid of things that make us unhappy.

StA iirc lives on VA disability, what happens when his rural Utopia doesn't generate enough surplus wealth to support him? I assume that in this break up all past commitments and contracts are rendered moot like in a bankruptcy.

[Fife]

Speaking of smug, FO, NY.

I wish trech were here to defend Mississippi.

Fucking smart assed yankees.

[nmoore63]

Your smug dismissal of wealth as a priority is a feature of personally having enough. Most people's unhappiness and distress are from not having enough money for food, shelter and Healthcare. Money doesn't buy happiness, but it sure as hell can get rid of things that make us unhappy.

StA iirc lives on VA disability, what happens when his rural Utopia doesn't generate enough surplus wealth to support him? I assume that in this break up all past commitments and contracts are rendered moot like in a bankruptcy.

So you would contend that American society has become massively happier over the last 100 years?

[MilSpecs]

So you would contend that American society has become massively happier over the last 100 years?

God, yes. Our kids used to routinely predecease us. We used to die horribly and younger than we do now. Severe pain and suffering was a routine part of everyday life. Speaking of which, I don’t see anyone turning down the medical innovation of the urban areas, nor the education that made that innovation possible.

Everyone wants the benefits that come from urban areas without the sacrifices that gave those benefits.

[brewster]

So you would contend that American society has become massively happier over the last 100 years?

Absolutely. Pick whatever metric you want. Health, nutrition, workplace safety, seniors living in poverty, children living in poverty, whatever. Your "but mah self determination!" Is totally a first world problem. We're not talking about the lack of self-determination that is slave has. You've got a hell of a lot more self-determination and life expectancy than a coal miner living in a company town in 1900.

If you want to argue that people living in poverty with a short life expectancy were happier than us nonetheless because they had family and Jaysus, I can't even begin.

[Speaker to Animals]

It goes back to what I just learned about our history. Many whites in early America were captured or otherwise ended up living with the Natives. After whites removed them from the tribes back to white society, white society struggled to keep them from absconding back to *their* tribe.

By all your metrics, colonials were better off. Better safety. Access to health care. Material wealth.

They were miserable here and escaped back to the tribes because they wanted happiness again.

I would submit you live in so much toil and misery that perhaps you have no concept of true happiness. Perhaps none of us do. Ponder that.