Good point. If someone is of poor health & in constant pain, it's kind of hard for the happiness synthesizing part of the brain to make the real pain go away.

There's a point where reality trumps our virtual synthesized lives.

Wel, he's not saying that your happiness never changes, merely that the big things we seek and fear don't have the lasting effect we expect.

I don't know of studies of it, but my feeling is that as people get older, their minor personality traits get squeezed out by their major ones, which grow.

I question the methodology of these studies-they sound like they were sponsored by Merck or Pfizer-change your synthesized brain chemistry and instant happiness can be yours. Personally, reaching my goals consistently brings me happiness-failing to reach them makes me unhappy. IMO the most important and underrating contributor to human happiness is your immediate environment-the persons you physically interact with. It is very challenging for anyone to maintain a miserable attitude when surrounded by happy persons. It is very challenging for anyone to maintain a positive attitude while surrounded by miserable a-holes.Life is a team sport.

Good point however since life began it consumes energy. Everything in the Universe in order to HAPPEN needs energy!

We need to reform civilization because we cannot create a nature of our own and live independently from the nature who created us and paradoxilly expect to extract everything we want from it indefenetly.

We need to reform work and value it differently. Stop mass production, produce locally. Put machines and automatization at the service of wellbeing of society and not at the service of profits. Profits and accumulation of riches must not be a goal, as long as this happens there will be tensions. GDP cant influence employment at all! I must stress this! This is a fatal flaw of this civilization!

Our cultural education and life goals have to migrate from material stuff (cars, computers, houses, cell phones, etc) to non physical things (knowledge, arts, spirituality, philosofy, socializing, etc).

Capitalism also rewards all those parasites living off their daddy's and mommy's efforts. Capitalism is highly dependent upon unlimited growth and encourages that growth. That growth is running up against a finite planet. Capitalism has within it the seeds of planetary destruction and, therefore, its own destruction. The alternative doesn't have to be pure socialism. Capitalism, in order to survive in some form, needs to be constrained. Just because we participate in some form of capitalism doesn't mean we cannot engage in some self restraint. Succeeding based on merit does not require that we eat everything in our path.

Bill Gates, as successful as he is, was also very lucky in that he had well connected parents and lucked into one of the biggest monopolies on this planet, the Dos operating system. It is not simply all about your individual effort.

It is not about capitalism or socialism. It is not about either/or. It is about preserving the planet which will not happen under a regime of unrestrained capitalism. That doesn't mean socialism is better. It just means that we have to find a third way.

And it is not so stark as people being weeded out. Weeding out means destroyed. Those who make less money for whatever reason move on and thrive. It is not either/or as you seem to want to make it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in capitalism it seems like the less work you do the more money you make.
When was the last time you saw a president of a banking firm, or a successful stock broker, or a corporate lawyer on Wall Street dig a ditch?
Hell, breaking a sweat is something they haven't experienced since gym in prep school.
Capitalism has the distict shape of a pyramid, and those at the top benefit off the backs of those on the bottom - this is a global preponderance - and in this day in age if you want to make it to the top all you have to do is get lucky, lie, steal, cheat, backstab....ad-nauseum.I love how you use Mr. Gates as an example.I believe your contemporary history of economics is lacking.

If you want to see the ideal economy for man, all you have to do is pick up a Bible and read the Torah portion of the Bible - the first five books in the Bible.It does have an economy outlined for man that is predicated upon equity, and of course, honesty.
It states that every man is entitled to his own land (without having a land tax) and that the individual himself has the right to enjoy his or her labor and hard work.If a person decides to become stagnant and falls into debt, and or poverty, there was a cycle built into the system that allows the descendants of that particular person not to suffer the consequences of his irresponsibility.Every 50 years there was to be what was called the Year of Jubilee in which ALL debts were canceled, and ALL property was returned to the original family of inheritance in which complete indemnification was granted.Everyone would experience this release from debt at least once in their lifetime, and needless to say, it was perhaps one of the greatest experiences one could have.

God's Laws are opposed to communism in the respect that every individual has the God given right to property ownership, and can enjoy the hard work of their labor.

God's Laws are opposed to socialism likewise for the latter reason - if you work hard you reap the benefits.

Most importantly, the Torah is unequivocally and diametrically the opposite of capitalism in the fact wealth cannot be hoarded, and a pyramid type structure of economics cannot be sustained due to the complete cancelation of debts and the indemnification of all properties every 50 years.
When business transactions were conducted, the Year of Jubilee was always taken into consideration.If I was going to sell my property one year after the Year of Jubilee I would sell it for a much higher price than if the Year of Jubilee was near.The productivity timeframe was an important factor in the price of land if it was to be sold.
The main reason this clause is in God's Laws for mankind is to prevent the very usury and inequitable egregious practice of leverage against one another and the oppression of the poor by the inordinate acquisition of wealth; which is so common in our times it makes one execrate in disgust.No matter how hard the poor work to relieve themselves of their misery in this day and age, they cannot, in most circumstances, ameliorate themselves of this unjust burden.
To be a good business man today is a euphemism for depredation.

There are no taxes mentioned in the Torah other than a 10% levy for cattle, and this was primarily to be used for charity purposes for those who were not able to provide for themselves, i.e., orphans and widows.So when you hear these bastards on TV asking for money (tithe) to help their 501c3 corporate 'churches',realize their day of reckoning is coming.If it's not All going to help the poor, there is going to be hell to pay - literally.

Even though God's Laws have been summarily rejected from time immemorial and the Old Covenant was never really kept, this did not thwart the plan of God's redemption.For in the falure of the people to abide by the Laws of Torah, God promised a New Covenant in which His laws would be written on the hearts of man through Yeshua.

The reason the Antichrist comes to power, according to the book of Revelation, is primarily through an oppressive economic system prevalent in the world in the last days of this age.The pyramidal type system intensifies as that day draws near.The reason many in the churches, if not most, fail to comprehend what is transpiring is primarily due to their 501c3 corporate status - not realizing they are imbedded in the system.
Yes, it will be NGO's that control the world eventually, and they will attempt to microchip every human being on planet earth as a means of control.

One day, however, Yeshua will return and establish His Kingdom predicated on the laws stated above.

One can believe whatever they choose to, but that does not change reality.

Survival of the fittest?

Oh,I get it. Capitalism is nothing less than Darwinian economics.

Are we animals or are we human beings created by God?

If one enjoys conquering another human being, and profiteering from their misery;

No wonder these individuals do not want to believe in a God in whom we must give an account for our actions.

I will grant you that a good, individual strategy is to preserve capital, including those assets that will be most useful in a coming age of scarcity. However, in the U.S., it is a very rare bird who does not acquire and consume. People's incomes increase but their wants tend to exceed their grasp. Even the relatively well off in terms of income don't do a very good job of preserving capital. Overall, our net savings is less than zero. Massive credit card debt. On and on. Anyway, for the most part, in America, acquisition does indeed equal consumption and beyond for the vast majority. We are a nation debtors. At at the national level, we want a free lunch. Cut taxes forever but do nothing to reduce spending.

Most of Dick Cheney's wealth was acquired by sucking off the government's tit through military contracts based on his connections. Not a good example of capitalism.