“Money doesn’t buy happiness”. Absolutely true. Look at all the miserable wealthy billionaires and trillionaires.
Money, however, does ENABLE happiness by warding off fear, despair, hopelessness and all other crap.
Money doesn’t buy happiness but financial instability eradicates it.
I heard someone say “money isn’t everything, but not having it is.”
My take is that money doesn’t bring happiness, but poverty definitely can strip it away
I think what we’re looking here is for breathing room. The cost of living must return to sustainability for people to expand and regain lost stability in all expects of their lives.
Of course, certain people will try to gaslight into saying that being a serf for Neo-Feudalism is the best thing ever, and that an organisation or state that doesn’t serve your wellbeing or interest is the best thing ever
“Money may not buy happiness, but it can but a jet ski, and I’ve never seen anyone on a jet ski that wasn’t smiling!” - some comedian
There was a commercial for a cruise line where the daughter stopped smiling as soon as she saw mom was filming, does that count?
Therapy is fantastic, but any therapist will tell you that for it to have lasting effects, you need at least 12 months of continual attendance.
Now ask yourself how many people can afford weekly therapy sessions for a year. Where I live the cost would be about 3.5 median paychecks.
Find a therapist that will guarantee results after 12 months or your money back.
I’ll wait.
Find a nutritionist who will guarantee results after 12 months or your money back.
I’ll wait
Find a physical therapist who will guarantee results after 12 months or your money back.
I’ll wait
Find any professional who will guarantee results after 12 months or your money back when the issue comes down to personal responsibility
I’ll wait
You don’t show up, say your week was fine, you don’t believe in therapy, you have nothing to talk about, go home and magically get better.
Yes, you’re right, I was being unfair to therapists there; nobody offers money back guarantees for services.
That said, I find it kind of repulsive how therapist imply you WILL get better if you just put in the time (ie, give them a lot of money). I’ve seen plenty of therapists, I’ve NEVER had a therapist terminate me because I wasn’t getting better, even though I never got better with any therapist no matter how long I´d seen them. It seems most therapist will happily cash your checks in perpetuity unless you become a problem (suicidal), in which case many therapists will find a way to drop you like a hot potato.
But if you actually do care about research instead of soaking clients for money, there was a paper that showed that therapy usually starts working after a relatively short time period (maybe 2 months?) [edit: if its going to work at all], so I’d counsel people to stop seeing a therapist if they’re not seeing any benefit from it–a piece of advice nobody you are paying for advice is likely to give you and at least try a different therapist if not a different approach entirely.
Anyway, my anecdotal or lived experience (depending on if you want to devalue it or value it) is that I only got better when I disassociated myself from the mental health care system. The mental health system CAN do an amazing amount of harm, even unintentionally, and I don’t see a lot of therapist even aware of the possibility.
I find it kind of repulsive how therapist imply you WILL get better if you just put in the time
Like literally anything else in life? Yes. put in the time, get results.
Are there exceptions? Yes. medical conditions can make you not see gains in the gym, learning impediments can hinder progress in acedemics. Maybe it’s a bad teacher sometimes, but for the most part: put in time, see results.
I’ve NEVER had a therapist terminate me because I wasn’t getting better, even though I never got better with any therapist no matter how long I´d seen them.
Okay. That’s personal responsibility too. How many trainers terminate because you aren’t getting gains fast enough? How many teachers stop tutoring you and say you’re hopleless?
You can call it perverse incentive, but at the end of the day you gotta speak up for yourself and figure out what works best for you. Sure, if you really have 10 sessions talking to a person and you feel no better than ranting to a friend, you probably need a different approach, But therapists aren’t some magical exception to capitalism.
If you put in time and effort, everything is possible, except sometimes its not and you have to know the difference. Thank you. Very insightful.
That’s all I’m saying, yea. Therapists aren’t any different from any other professional you seek for improvement. But generally, in the wide spectrum of 100s of millions of people, professional guidance improves you.
Biggest sin of social media is people further misunderstanding statistics and acting like an individual failure is a societal letdown. Sometimes you just have a shit teacher. doesn’t mean all teachers are shit.
I guess there’s a certain question of autonomy. There’s a tension between, “I need help running my life” and “I know when something isn’t helpful and can walk away.” There are ways in which therapy can disempower you: it can teach you to ignore your instincts, paper over your concerns… there is a real risk that someone who just can´t handle anything about their life will be trapped in an unhelpful (or openly abusive) relationship for years, so I’m really hesitant to recommend it to people blindly with no caveats.
Yes therapists are like shoes. Sometimes you need to try a few, and I can see why most therapists don’t say this (Because there are some bobo shoes) but they really ought to.
You absolutely 100% do not need a full year, agreed. The therapists should being a form of therapy such as EMDR, or being teaching skills very quickly after your initial appointment.
If all they ask is ‘How is your day’ with no plan to graduate you, or moved to a lower contact situation - they probably aren’t very good therapists
Ok, we agree mostly then. I think I just want people to go in with their eyes open and maintain their autonomy in therapy–be able to say “this isn´t working” and move on if necessary, to another therapy or another way to deal with their problem entirely.
There’s just a sheer passivity that seems to be implied in these conversation, like “just go to ANY therapist and let them fix you” which I really don’t want to leave unaddressed; glad that’s not what you’re saying.
Edit: Also, maybe some people do need a full year or even more! My point is only that you should be seeing regular and steady improvement, or at least motion. The idea that you can just hammer yourself with therapy sessions for a long enough time to get healed is wrong.
Or just, wealth/stability. So many people would give away money to have their own vegetable garden attached to a multi-generational home - they can then figure the rest out from there.
Humans are different and have different interests but one thing common to all of us is that we enjoy:
- being outdoors
- exercising
- having community
- learning skills and creating things
There are actually some people who successfully self therapise. This is hard to do, so it’s actually a testament to just how many people out there need therapy, which reflects how unhealthy modern life is for humans.
The core idea of the tweet is correct - people can heal mental health sounds when given the right environment to. We live in a time where almost nobody is in the right environment for this, which requires what I listed before (healthy community, access to green space, purpose and recreation). This is basic stuff, I think it’s covered by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - which, ironically, is often shown to business students in universities, but then disregarded by the capitalists who rule this world.
So many people would give away money to have their own vegetable garden
I guess I’m in the minority. I’m perfectly happy living in a townhome with a postage stamp backyard if it puts me walking distance from a fully stocked grocery store stuffed with fresh food harvested out in the country.
Humans are different and have different interests but one thing common to all of us is that we enjoy
I mean, I’ll spot you fresh air and friendly neighbors, relatively speaking. But being outdoors when it’s muggy or freezing or ozone-y is highly overrated. Exercise isn’t something I need (or prefer) to do in my home when a park or gym is nearby. And hobbies are, similarly, nice to do in a communal space where all the tools I need are at hand.
So I might spot you “quality public amenities” in lieu of “disposable income/savings”. But I think your mileage is really going to vary by climate and weather conditions when it comes to just telling people to touch grass.
This is basic stuff, I think it’s covered by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - which, ironically, is often shown to business students in universities, but then disregarded by the capitalists who rule this world.
Maslow’s a great “Intro To” for sociology, but it does run into a lot of caveats and limits. People will periodically risk or outright sacrifice lower “basic” needs in pursuit of higher goals. And influencing that behavior is exactly what business-and-marketing seeks to achieve. Capitalists don’t neglect Maslow, they aspire towards exploiting and subverting it. The ideal commoditized bit of human capital is going to live in the pod and eat the bugs and own nothing and still be happy.
Maslow is for the real people, not the NPCs.
Reminds me of https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/02/12/money-money-everywhere-but-not-a-cent-to-spend
Specifically:
In this case, it was that – well, the guy is a minimum wage worker from inner city Detroit. He didn’t tell me exactly how much money this debt was, but from a couple of numbers he mentioned I got the impression it was in the ballpark of $5000. That might not seem like an attempt-suicide level of money to some people, but to this guy with his job the chance of ever paying it off seemed low enough that it wasn’t worth waiting and seeing.
So what bothered me is that psychiatric hospitalization costs about $1,000 a day. Average length of stay for a guy like him might be three to five days. So we were spending $5,000 on his psychiatric hospitalization, which was USELESS, so that we could send him out and he could attempt suicide again because of his $5,000 debt which he has no way of paying off. And probably end up in the hospital a second time, for that matter.
I just got a full time job and health insurance, after being without for a while.
My mental health is spectacular now. From the day I got my offer, I’ve felt cool as a cucumber. My dumbass ex also accidentally transferred me several thousand dollars, so just the feeling of having a nest egg and safety is like the world being lifted off my shoulders. Therapy never did anything even close.
Also the Therapist: So anyways I started billin $300/h
Hey she’s most people too
Money gives you the freedom to choose your job. If you have enough backup money, you will basically not let your employer bully/mobbing you, because you can resign. When we normal people talk about money, we don’t mean billions; we need money that basically gives us freedom of choice for basic needs and helps us survive on bad days(2-3 years of unemployment)
Can confirm. Once I became wealthy enough to quit my job I liked it a lot more, because I could speak my mind without fear. The last 6 months I worked was the easiest 6 months.
100% agree. Now, I can’t speak freely because I fear losing my job.
Seriously. I’m someone that’s had a background in engineering but has really struggled in office jobs due to what I now know to be AuDHD related. I’m currently exploring a mid career transition to K12 teaching. I’ve had prior experience in education, just not K12 classroom teaching. But I have real reason to believe this would work a lot better with my neurology.
But frankly, the only reason I’m able to explore this is because I have a partner, and we’re fortunate enough to be able to get by on their income alone. We both need to be working for us to really make progress on our savings and retirement goals, and I owe it to them to do all I can to pull my own weight. So I can’t just not work. But I have the luxury of being able to try to find work that works for me.
With as rocky as a career history as I have had? If I hadn’t been with my partner, I would have probably had to make a living on my back or end up living on the street. I certainly never would have had the luxury of being able to take the time to explore alternate career paths. It’s that bad.
I have struggled with very real career impediments from this. And having a bit of money has made all the difference. We’re not rich. But just having enough to have a stable home situation and the ability to afford treatment is life changing.
I 100% agree. If you have enough backup money, you will basically not let your employer bully/mobbing you, because you basically can resign.
It’s honestly one of the best benefits of marriage if you can manage it. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to keep your mandatory expenses below either of your individual incomes, you both gain tremendous leverage against employers. There is no more powerful negotiating tool than having the ability to walk away.
100% agree. Otherwise, it is the cost of living, especially if one of the partners has more expenses.
Yeah, it is actually very difficult to manage. It’s called the two-income trap for a reason. But my partner and I do this. We at least try to keep our mandatory expenses under one income. If we have a long duration job loss and savings aren’t enough, we can at least cover our basics - mortgage, food, property taxes, health insurance, etc. off one income. That might require pausing all retirement savings, cutting out all eating out and any subscription services, and not traveling anywhere. But we try to at least keep our bare survival expenses below either of our incomes.
And we’ve just planned our life around this. For example, we could easily afford a much nicer house than we currently have…if we were willing to be dependent on both our incomes to cover the mortgage. But then you’re in trouble if either of you loses a job. Instead of providing stability, the extra income actually compounds your risk!
I know many, perhaps most, people can’t do this even with great frugality. But if you can manage to do it, it is a life hack that brings such an incredible amount of peace, stability, and safety to your life that, to me at least, no fancier home could ever be worth giving up that safety to obtain.
I agree with you. But people are too greedy and jealous of each other. Usually, one of them say ohh my friends go to holidays, have a good car; why don’t I have one?
temptation of these populist people is the biggest problem. If people did not consume more than they need, we might not have these problems.
They want workers dependant. Ever since the end of slavery, big business has been trying to rules lawyer a back door into having it again.
💯
I’d suggest one better: stop gating the provision of subsistence behind financial transactions.
But then the smart high-status people wouldn’t get economic rent! People would poison themselves and we’d have an opioid epidemic! You’re basically a patent medicine snake oil salesman. /s
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Pretty much what I try to tell my parents. I don’t need therapy. I know exactly what stresses me out and it’s this extended fall from grace from saving up for my own house to taking up any gig in my ability to keep the lights on in the span of 3 years. The ladder was pulled up and they actively pushed me out of the floor.
Stable material conditions will improve life for the vast majority of people. The only ones it won’t improve things for are people who shouldn’t be living the way they do anyway.
If more people have money, they can afford therapy. I see what she’s doing. It’s a shrinkspiracy!
or they should make theraphy more affordable, so its accesible to everyone
Even just $1000 would be extremely helpful to most Americans, but $10,000 would be transformative for MANY people.
7.62x39 is about 42 cents a round on ammo seek. $1000 would be about 420 rounds not counting shipping.
Fiat currency and power. Two concepts that exists entirely in our minds. Two concepts that ruin the species. Maybe we arent intelligent afterall…
Fun fact: 100 Billion is a lot of money. That is only 10% of what Elon Musk is worth. If Elon gave every American (about 350 million last I checked), $1M, that would only put a dent in his wealth to the tune of just over 1/3rd of 1% of his wealth. These Uber wealthy need to shut up about needing more money. They have so much that they could loose an amount that would be literally life-changing to most of us and would barely notice it, if an accountant didn’t say anything to them.
350 Million x 1 Million is 350 Trillion. So over 350 times his net worth. Each person in the US could get like 1 thousand for over 1/3 of his net worth.
Using British definitions I see. 1 billion is 1,000 million, and 1 trillion is 1,000 billion. If 1% of 1,000 is 10 then 1/3 of that would be 3.3333.
3.33 x log 9 would be 3,333,333,333.333(repeating)
345,000,000 US citizens X$1,000,000 per citizen ‐------------------------ $345,000,000,000,000That’s trillions. The log should have been 6+6 for your math if both the money and population were in the millions.
