[ExI] Effects of Money on personality

[efc at swisscows.email]

On the micro-level I agree, but remember that the argument is based on 
questionaires and research on a global level, so yes, individually it 
might not be true, but all data indicates that humanity as an aggregate 
becomes happier with increased wealth, freedom and capitalism.

Another common mistake is to disregard the time factor as well. Many 
people I've discussed with who are anti-capitalist love to argue about 
short instances of capitalism, instead of looking at the trend over 
multiple decades. By only looking at short time spans, the trends won't be 
visible.

Last, but not least, my opinion is that islam as a religion is 
incompatible with freedom and capitalism. Until european countries learn 
that lesson, and work hard to integrate the second generation of 
immigrants, there is a long term threat to western liberal values. Unless 
the second generation immigrants are assimilated and inculcated with these 
values from an early age, there is a risk that islam and its built in 
values will take over in some countries in a worst case scenario.

Based on how badly sweden has handled massive immigration of muslims so 
far, this is what I believe.

Best regards,
Daniel


On Sun, 7 Jan 2024, Kelly Anderson via extropy-chat wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 6, 2024 at 4:30 PM efc--- via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hello Kelly,
>>
>> Based on personal experience looking at myself and people around me I
>> agree with what you are saying 100%. I've seen the same thing.
>>
>> To add to that, I just finished reading my christmas present to myself,
>> the capitalist manifesto by Johan Norberg
>> (https://www.cato.org/books/capitalist-manifesto) and in the book Johan
>> very convincingly shows that increased capitalism and democracy lead to
>> richer countries which leads to generally happier people.
>>
>
> Note that the following story is only anecdotal... but I am very
> familiar with it.
>
> My ex-wife when she got more money (from our divorce, primarily)
> became more of a hoarder, more selfish, harder to get along with by
> everyone, lazier, and more demanding on the people around her. Now, to
> be fair, she had BPD and NPD among her multiple personality disorders.
> But she did become MORE of what she was before. She was never happier
> than the day *after* she died of cancer. Nobody around her was happier
> before that either, and I'm not speaking as a disgruntled ex-husband,
> but as an objective observer of all the people who knew her. She never
> improved the happiness of any person she met for more than a few days
> at the most. Our only daughter agrees with these assessments as well,
> so it's not just me.
>
> So while I agree that IN GENERAL, people get happier with more money,
> at least to a point... If they are bound and determined to be unhappy,
> then money will make them more unhappy. The Happiness Hypothesis - or
> any number of TED talks by Jonathan Haidt are instructional about the
> "to a point" part.
>
> In the bigger picture, most of the Middle Eastern countries that have
> flirted with democracy have had less than great outcomes. There's
> something seemingly deeply incompatible between Islam and democracy.
> The current troubles in Gaza, you may recall, came out of a government
> that was voted into power. That's not to say Israel doesn't perform
> their part of the escalation dance... but Hamas was elected.
>
> I would suspect, to stay on topic a little, that Islam is also deeply
> incompatible with transhumanism and other things we value highly in
> extropian thought.
>
> -Kelly
>
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