Comments on: Joy! I earn more than happiness scientists!

Joy! I earn more than happiness scientists!

DirtyCreature — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 01:22:55 -0800

Reasons to be Cheerful : (mostly PDFs) You earn less than I do. I live in Malta. I am not single. I pay high tax rates. I believe in God. I don't watch TV. Abortion is legal where I live. And other lessons from the new science of ~~hippiness~~ happiness. (Sort of mentioned here.)

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 01:34:08 -0800

Reasons to be Miserable: Alito to be confirmed today.

By: anda L.

anda L. — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 06:07:31 -0800

you read my mind, RavinDave.

By: bluesky43

bluesky43 — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 06:31:37 -0800

Metafilter would be a much better place if every mefi was required to write down 3 things that well during their day and why. Put it in the pink! Great links DC.

By: raedyn

raedyn — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 06:46:14 -0800

Interesting to think about all those things together.

By: raedyn

raedyn — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 06:47:36 -0800

Please don't drag the American political wrangling into every thread. There's no reason to talk about Alito here. Thanks, The Rest of the World.

By: gene_machine

gene_machine — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 07:05:43 -0800

Concerning the "I am not single" link, the statement "married men had a much lower risk of death" is utterly ludicrous, and incredibly lazy journalism. Early death, maybe.

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 07:18:12 -0800

Tune in, Turn on, Drop out.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 07:22:32 -0800

Reasons to be Miserable: Alito to be confirmed today. Reasons to be Cheerful: A Supreme Court that devolves power to the legislature and a anti-Republican legislative majority.

By: raedyn

raedyn — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 07:27:32 -0800

Concerning the "I am not single" link, the statement "married men had a much lower risk of death" is utterly ludicrous, and incredibly lazy journalism. Early death, maybe. - gene_machine Clever. But the study was only over a 7 year period, as it says in the second sentence. It wasn't looking at lifetime risks.

By: raedyn

raedyn — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 07:28:50 -0800

Point being, I think they were looking at the risk of dying during the seven years they studied, not risk of dying ever.

By: Laugh_track

Laugh_track — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:35:23 -0800

Tune in, Turn on, Drop out. Is happiness the end goal of your life? Are you content to be happy and do nothing? Does learning new skills and applying them, getting to know new people, and making important decisions not make you happy?

By: driveler

driveler — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:35:24 -0800

'the top 10% "very happy" people...spent the least time alone and the most time socialising.' This is fascinating. Can anyone find the actual study or something like it?

By: I Love Tacos

I Love Tacos — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:35:39 -0800

"married men had a much lower risk of death" Yet their health insurance costs are significantly higher. Maybe they usually just get maimed.

By: DirtyCreature

DirtyCreature — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 10:31:30 -0800

It might be worth noting here that 20-something, unmarried American Mefites who are constantly competing with each other, don't believe in God, are more concerned with world events than personal circumstances, are children of broken marriages and who watch a lot of TV are among the most unhappy in the world. Yes really (except for the Mefite bit).

By: DirtyCreature

DirtyCreature — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 10:55:06 -0800

This is fascinating. Can anyone find the actual study or something like it? Not sure of this particular result but plenty of interesting relevant papers here - http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/faculty/oswald/ http://cep.lse.ac.uk/layard/

By: raedyn

raedyn — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 11:20:48 -0800

"married men had a much lower risk of death" Yet their health insurance costs are significantly higher. Maybe they usually just get maimed. - I Love Tacos (really?) Death means you stop costing your health insurer money. More living means more health costs. Or maybe a married man is more likely to be nagged into going to see the doctor than a similar single man?

By: I Love Tacos

I Love Tacos — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:37:55 -0800

(really?) I don't know if it's universal, but at my company the health care costs are significantly higher for married men. (and that's excluding dependants. single men with children pay close to the same as single men without... but when they get married, it increases significantly.) I haven't the foggiest clue why.