(July 18, 2016 at 11:55 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: We seem to have gotten on to a side issue: the 'hedonic treadmill' (aka hedonic adaptation), the tendency of humans to return to the same level of happiness whether things have been going badly or well for us. As we become more prosperous and/or healthy, our expectations rise, and if we're concerned about where our next meal is coming from, our expectations fall. Individuals have their own 'natural level' of happiness to which they return over time. A worrier isn't going to stop worrying for long if they win a million dollars. What this means for society is that we are always going to complain, no matter how good things get for us. If the local government is doing everything right and meeting all reasonable expectations, we'll complain about the spacing of the elm trees on medians or argue over how many days to have fireworks on the 4th of July.
To me, a measure of how well a society is doing can be reflected in how trivial its main concerns are. Happiness is not a good gauge, because of the hedonic treadmill. I think better health and prosperity are worth pursuing for society even if people don't feel happier for having them. Happiness isn't everything.
That's one of the best points in this thread, and applies to several of other participants' posts including mine.
