people are richer, but less happy. causes and effects ??

ĐỀ 22/9/2012

In some countries, people are richer, but less happy. What are causes and effects?

Causes

- Psychology: higher stress

- Economic: more competition

- Technology: shallow relationship and machine-like behavior

Effects

Positive

- Gain a deeper perspective

- Feel urged to escape and do something creative

Negative

- Suffer more diseases

- Become pessimistic, suicidal feelings

When wealthy people in developed nations are surveyed, contrary to popular belief, most of them claim that they are suffering rather enjoying. There are, in fact, various reasons and effects along with their less happiness.

One of the first contributors to the absence of happiness in their lives is higher stress and competitive world. In their work places, the call of deadlines drives them to the point of living a life of hurry, being workaholics and even forgetting the sense of enjoyment. As a result of being plunged into a technology-driven world, they tend to be oblivious to what creates happiness. I recalled a comedy starred by Char-los Chaplin who played the role of a worker in a factory in the industrialized world. While working, he is eating under the control of the machine, and how miserable he looks in that film. Honestly, the meal-time should be reserved to cement relationship, chat and share feelings, not to continuously work crazily. The virtual world- Internet, though providing people a wider network of relationship, also pushes into the world of shallowness and even deception. Can people perceive the true happiness when hardly can they communicate with real beings to see facial expression, smile and hug those they love?

Effects of this trend are numerous and ambivalent. To some extent, it is believed that once people realize their happiness is gone, they will feel regretful and look back on things they are having now to gain a deeper perspective of life. My uncle, for instance, decides to quit his high-paid job so as to pursue his passion of playing tennis and live a life of full satisfaction since then. Occasionally, the feeling of loneliness, sadness or so is a source of inspiration for people to come up with new ideas and escapes.We can witness an escalating number of people, after experiencing mental cul-de-sacs,giving birth to a series of inspirational movies away from the current mundane world such as non-fictional stories and a number of best-selling books reflecting the unimaginable, but interesting world like the work by Rolling, Harry potter. Others cite more consequences of the trend “losing happiness”. Surveys have indicated that in the society where people are less happy, suicidal feelings are more existent, and even collective suicide is inevitable. Physically speaking, as a result of mental degradation, diseases begin to creep in. To melt away depression, more and more people resort to fast-food, which results in their obesity, higher chance of heart-attack, insomnia, hyper-tension whereas some bury themselves in heroin in the western world.

-         Oblivious + of (adj) lãng quên, không nhớ, không biết, mù tịt

-         Deception (n) sự dối trá, lừa gạt = lying = deceit = delusion

(adj) deceptive = deceiful = false = delusive

-         Ambivalent (adj) hai chiều, nước đôi

-         Cul-de-sac (n) ngõ cụt, bước đường cùng

-         Degradation (n) sự giảm sút, thoái hóa, giáng chức

-         Depression (n) vết lõm, sự chán nản, suy yếu, suy nhược