Misc: Do money make YOU happy?

[Cataferal]

In a way i agree. People often criticize money as being the source of all evil because they see what people will do to get it. But in my eyes, to live in a modern world, currency is the tool to convert your work into play. Without it, getting what you want from life would be much harder, and i imagine being happy would be harder too.
However, if you were stuck on a desert island and forced to become self-proficient, im sure you'd find ways of being happy without any involvement of money. Greed is part of human nature, we'll always take what we have for granted and want more. Money plays a large role in helping us achieve that, buying things we want on a regular basis, when we could just as well be content in being alive.

In all, i think its entirely reliant on our perspective of happiness, and what it takes to achieve it. If your happy playing videogames or watching movies, your going to need to make use of money. If your just happy relaxing under the sun on a summers day, rolling your hands on the soft green grass beneath you, then evidently you dont.
So ultimately, i dont think you need money to be happy, but it helps a lot depending on where your entertainment lies.

<font color="#345E81" size="1">[ March 22, 2005 12:57 PM: Message edited by: Cataferal ]</font>

[Dreamer7000]

IRT Wiserman:

As we say in Spain, money doesn't make happiness, it buys it done [img]smile.gif[/img] .

lol, quoted!

But how much would you have to work to get all that done, and how many jobs would you be doing?

More than one man could handle, it would be awful. I won't be able to suit my needs on a deserted insland, I'd probably die in a few weeks. But talented people could live their life at least on a minimal level.

Part of the money you pay goes to transportation, so you can have everything in the same place.

Yeah, and it goes to all that useful stuff a city country needs, but a real unfair amount goes to the pockets of the goverment leaders and people. Which I really find sick, that these goverment people have "troubles" buying their 6th car after the 5th accident they caused because driving drunk, while others have real troubles feeding themselves or their family.

Everything belongs to somebody. It's part of civilization. [...] Now we have something fair and peaceful going on.

The only problem in this, is that some people have TOO many, and some peple have way less. It's definatly not fair. If somone works hard to achieve his/her money, no matter the amount then I don't care, let him/her live happily, but if someone who does almost nothing and end up being too rich to handle pisses me off.

You sure don't want to pick rocks and make glass yourself, do you?

Ofcourse not =/ I worship good piece of work, but as HK said, some prices are still too much.

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Also, I gather the price of the things listed:

Note: I count 1 Euro as 250 HUF.
In a pizzeria in Budapest, the price is between 1200 and 1600 HUF, which is 5-6 Euro, so this is fair.
A jeans or some stylish pants can cost between 5000 and 8000 HUF, so that is quite fair too.
A plastic garden chair is currently 2500 HUF, and that's about 10 Euro, and a camping chair that you can open/close costs only 1600 HUF, which is 6-7 Euro. A bit more expensive.
I bought my PS2 for 60.000 HUF, which is 240 Euro (!!!), and altho the price is reduced now to 35000-40000 HUF which is a bit closer to your price (150-160 Euro), but consoles' and video games' price is insanely high in Hungary. An old game's (2 years) price still can be above 25-30 Euro, and newly out games can cost from 55 Euro till even 65 euro.
I don't know about electricity much, but as much we use (computers, TVs, our house is full with wires really @_@) it's not so expensive. Around 0.10 Euro.
Train transportation: #LINK#
but a one-way ticket covering 20km costs 1 Euro.
About flat prices, here's a link.
In Hungary there is a 25 % tax on all goods ( 15 % on some, mainly services) called ?FA (Value Added Tax), which is included in the price.
Average salary surveys on this page, altho I think they pay less than the worth of the work, for example my moms.

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Money is not the top priority for me either, but it plays a real important role nowdays.

<font color="#345E81" size="1">[ March 23, 2005 08:10 AM: Message edited by: Dreamer Hyper ]</font>

[Hell Knight]

Thx Hyper, I was never good in money

[mrwiseman]

IRT Dreamer: a real unfair amount goes to the pockets of the goverment leaders and people

That's if the government isn't doing things the right way. (At least over here, leftists = corrupt thieves, to hell with them.)


if someone who does almost nothing and end up being too rich to handle pisses me off

The system is not perfect yet, and some people, most noticeably pop singers, soccer players, politicians, and lawyers, get rich for nothing. Of course, people is partly to blame. They buy their crap. This is a free market, and if you're willing to pay over $20 for Britney Spears and similar stuff you're helping R?/-\/-\ and other fuckers (while real, less known artists will probably have a tough time even if they're charging one quarter that price).


WRT prices: Interesting. It seems to be about the same in food, clothes and transportation; new games cost about the same (50..60?), although old games get much cheaper here (10..25?); technology and equipment seems more expensive though, and VAT is ugly. My prices had the VAT included too, but with a lower VAT, producers get more money of the total, so it tends to help getting lower prices. Property is way cheaper in Hungary though, 80000? vs. 320000?, although I was expecting this; Spain's land and real estate is very expensive. At least you won't spend many years paying your home. Overall pricess seem to be more or less the same.

Salaries is where you get screwed, besides technology. ?13200 is that site's average for an averagely experienced IT pro while that site reports about ?35700 for Spain. That'd mean an average IT may buy 240 PS2s a year in Spain, but only 85 in Hungary. The difference smaller with food, with 6050 and 2400 pizzas. A French would get about 4700 pizzas BTW.

I think salaries are to low (or prices too high); you are paying Western Europe prices while earning Eastern Europe salaries, that's the problem. I hope Hungary gets fixed soon.

[Hell Knight]

Sigh, so do I Wise, so do I. But there's only little hope for that, if our government won't change. And you're totally correct about the west-east cost-payment

[Dreamer7000]

Yeah, this system sucks. And yeah, the salaries are too damn low, that's why we sense the prices too high. If the goverment won't steal half of our money, we would be fixed in notime.

IRT HK: No problem =]

[melfice]

Simply and plainly, NO, It doesn't make me happy. Money is just a tool to buy things, not something you can enjoy. You need money indeed, but that doesn't mean it gives you happiness, the happines comes with the things you get with te money.

[mrwiseman]

Oh but with 1000? in your pockets just thinking on what are you going to buy would make anybody smile. It indirectly produces happiness, as it's converted into anime, manga, games, or the object of pleasure of your choice.

[Xhell]

What the Wiseman says is true.
I can recall a time many years ago when my friends and I had all decided to purchase bb guns. Between us we had accumulated ?200 which would buy everything we were requesting. This was to be submitted to the father of one of our friends as payment, since he was going to be ordering thre desired guns and equipment on the phone.
Anyway, before we gave the money to the father, we collected all the money into one huge pile of bills, and for about 10 minutes...actually passed the ammassed money between us, just so we could "experience" having ?200 worth of notes in one go.
Although this may seem depraved, this was a huge amount of money to have at that age....and we were all struggling not to wet ourselves because we were so excited about holding such a "huge" amount of money.
(i think at one point we threw it on the ground and all started rolling in it, giggling...Cataferal will clarify this if it's true, he was there too [img]smile.gif[/img] )

Anyway, my point is....yes, Wiseman is right. We relish in the pre-concieved consequences of what earning/the earnt money will enable us to get.

[Cataferal]

Classical conditioning. Cant beat it.