Do you have a cite for this assertion? I only ask because the last time I took a sociology class the wealthy had a higher rate of suicide than the poor. I know that isn’t definite proof that the poor are happier, assuming what I read was even true, but I’m not really sure that richer groups are necessarily happier.
Marc
I am very bitter. The price of SKS ammo (7.62x39) has made me that way. Obama will end the iraq debacle. Demand for 7.62 ammo worldwide will drop. Prices will drop. I will be happy.
No shit. Last week I paid 5.50 per box for some packs of Golden Tiger FMJ. But if Obama becomes president, you might become a criminal overnight for owning your SKS because Obama is against all semi-automatic weapons. (And I do believe that he will make gun “control” an issue again if he becomes elected.) Gosh, I wish I could vote for a president who would end the damn war and let us keep our guns. But I guess that’s too much to ask for. Since this thread became what amounts to a debate long ago, I thought I’d throw that out there.
OK, I’m gonna have to ask…how did you find that picture?
That’s what they’re asking the guy who posted it on the message board where I found it!
Wow, that’s pretty messed up right there. Seriously, or is this a whoosh?
Because if you’re really like that (and remember I’m not a doctor or anything) maybe you should get some help. Really.
You don’t drive, do you? Please sell your car before you hurt someone.
Sure. There’s some question as to whether relative income matters more than absolute income, but:
“When we plot average happiness versus income for clusters of people in a given country at a given time, we see that rich people are in fact much happier than poor people.
It’s actually an astonishingly large difference. There’s no one single change you can imagine that would make your life improve on the happiness scale as much as to move from the bottom 5 percent on the income scale to the top 5 percent.”
[See the chart here, that shows income and happiness in the US, as being of particular relavance. ]
“To see what they mean, take a look at the map that accompanies this column. It’s based on Gallup polls done around the world, and it clearly shows that life satisfaction is highest in the richest countries. The residents of these countries seem to understand that they have it pretty good, whether or not they own an iPod Touch.
If anything, Ms. Stevenson and Mr. Wolfers say, absolute income seems to matter more than relative income. In the United States, about 90 percent of people in households making at least $250,000 a year called themselves “very happy” in a recent Gallup Poll. In households with income below $30,000, only 42 percent of people gave that answer. But the international polling data suggests that the under-$30,000 crowd might not be happier if they lived in a poorer country.“
http://newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE320050815050144&Page=3&Title=Features+-+Health+%26+Science&Topic=-162
“Sociological researcher Glenn Firebaugh of the Pennsylvania State University and graduate student Laura Tach from Harvard University measured the age, total family income and general happiness of 20-to-64-year-olds using analysis from the 1972-2002 General Social Survey, reports science portal eurekAlert. […]The researchers found a relative income effect – the richer you are relative to your age peers, the happier you will tend to be.
Said Firebaugh: "We find with and without controls for age, physical health, education and other correlates of happiness that the higher the income of others in one’s age group, the lower one’s happiness.”
Now, naturally, there are studies that find that richer people aren’t happier (or much happier) but I think they get play because they are counterintuitive, sort of a “man bites dog” thing. It might be that a poor villager in Ghana is happier than an overstressed I-banker in NYC, but as a general rule, and particularly in this case where we’re comparing US-only, I’d say richer are happier.
Many poice forces have armed response units
Remember Virginia Tech? Some terrorists tried it in Israel only to be shot by the staff.
Remember the thread about the pizza delivery guy we just had?
Shopper stops armed robber. Link.
Homeowner shoots intruders. Link
Lots more here.
We can toss scenarios back and forth all day. But having a firearm gives you options. Americans may choose to not have a firearm. We in the U.K. don’t have that choice.
That’s okay. Here in America we have the choice not to keep lions and tigers as pets. That’s just as good.
Really? You think all those people who shot someone in a fit of anger aren’t sorry they did it, don’t maybe wish they hadn’t had a handy gun around when they were pissed off?
Don’t worry about my car, I don’t think of it as a killing tool, like a gun.
I am baffled as to the intended meaning of that.
Most people aren’t “the quick-to-anger sort” that would “rather there not be a convenient tool around for me to kill someone with when I get angry. Or to kill myself with when I get sad.” Most people have a little more control of themselves than that.
If you already know yourself to be so unstable as to be likely to fly into a fit of rage and kill people, I don’t think it’s safe for you to drive. Far more people are killed by cars every year than guns.
People like Gala Matrix Fire (not GMF specifically) are why I exercise my right to be armed.
There are more tigers kept as pets in the state of Texas than there are tigers in the wild. This seems a very reasonable justification to carry a gun in Texas.
That’s funny, I don’t think of my gun as a killing machine. I think of it as a self-defense tool and a piece of sporting equipment.
How has this thread flown under the mods’ radar and not been moved to Great Debates by now? As near as I can tell it’s become a simplistic debate on whether or not guns are okay. Which is understandable - there’s only so much you can say about the OP before opinions take over and then are countered by other people. I for one view it as a very, very welcome relief from the damn Hilary vs. Obama and Christian vs. Atheist threads which have multiplied like cancerous cells within a tumor.
I knew it was going to happen when I posted it, but being a natural optimist (that’s a joke, son) I hoped it would stay mundane and pointless.
