94 comments on Happiness, economic growth, and oil prices
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I'm an uber-doomer also, Matt. And although I'm laid-off at the moment from my primary job, I'm doing well enough with my home-based job. When I'm employed at my primary job, my happiness level would be around an 8. I'm probably around 6.5 right now because of the strain on my budget at a time that I feel desperate about the lack of funds for preparations, which I am woefully behind on.
Having said that, I suspect that when TSHTF and if I make it through the ensuing chaos, I believe I'll be capable of leading my family through it and on the other side. If all goes well, I believe that I will actually be at a higher level of happiness post-SHTF...maybe even a 9 - 9.5.
I have never been a fan of our servile social evolution. I'm...disenchanted...with it. It's time to start over!
dude (or dudette, as the case mya be) . . . anybody who can come up with the screen name "Ovis Suburbanus" (Suburban Sheep) has enough of a sense of humor about things that I'm sure they'll be able to get to 9.
That would be Mr. Suburbanus :). And you have to keep your sense of humor despite having the foresight of things to come. I expect difficulties and hardships, but oh will it make life just a bit more interesting. I'm glad I'm around at a time will humanity will see it's single most profound change in all of human history. So, cheers to having a front-row seat!
"If you can't laugh about the end of civilization what can you laugh about?"
I'm still a little miffed you didn't approve my myspace friend request, though :P
#1 I don't use myspace much
#2 I don't even know you
Interesting. I believe myself to be in the same boat with you. I truly believe that once we make it through the turmoil and I am living as a subsistence farmer, that I will be happier than I have ever been, hardships and all. I believe I might even be considered an anarchist in some ways.
If you're not truly an anarchist now, events may dictate that you will be. I see you just joined The Oil Drum and I'd like to welcome you. Are you new to PO awareness?
I recall when movies were preceded by a news reel where a man speaking in a stylized and serious voice would read off some news and bring us up to date on all the wonderful things science was doing that laid the ground work for a wonderful space age life. Boy! Life was exciting with so much to look forward to.
I have a mental picture of the availability of “things” to purchase and make our lives easier and more interesting as being sort of a bell curve that tracks the availability of cheap energy. Of course, we don't know what the “other” side of the curve will be like when energy is no longer cheap and plentiful but we can sort of get and idea by re-learning what life was like in the 1950's, 40's, 30's and so on. What will it be like when things we are accustomed to having any time we want are slowly (or maybe not so slowly) peeled away. Most novels and science fiction somehow embodies the notion that the human spirit triumphs over adversity. My recollection is that that was always at the root of all Star Trek episodes.
But we moderately well-to-do folks living in the developed world probably have a hard time imagining a world where new things are not being developed, economic growth does not continue, and we'll finish out our career and move into a wonderful retirement. We probably can intellectually but at the emotional level we probably think we'll pull through somehow. I wonder how folks will bear up psychologically if or when we come to grips with the reality that we have reached the tipping point of all the good things life has to offer and have begun sort of living life in reverse as we slide down the other side of the bell curve.