hink of it all - of the life that is! Study your friends and foes!
Study the past! And answer this: "Are these times better than those?" The life-long quarrel, the paltry spite, the sting of your poisoned pride! No matter who fell it were better to fight as they did when the world was wide.
Do Booming Economic Times = Happiness?
"In an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph today Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Australia's economy was not immune to the global financial crisis, but was coping well so far.He also took the opportunity to defend his decision not to pressure banks to pass on official interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank in full.
"The reality is, in the middle of a global financial crisis it is my job as Prime Minister to defend the stability of the financial system because it is mums and dads and small businesses that benefit most from a strong and stable financial system," he said."
::View Article::
It's hard to say who benefits most from a strong financial system, 'ordinary' working men and women with families or those who own and run the various institutions in the financial system like banks and non-bank lenders etc. We do hear this sort of thing from politicians all the time though: "do this or that, because it's in the best interests of the economy, and thus in the best interests "of working mums and dads".
But how closely aligned, exactly, is the well being of an abstraction like the economy with the well being and happiness of flesh and blood human beings, real families and grass-roots communities? A recent book by Australian historian and former academic David Potts called The Myth of the Great Depression offers some interesting thoughts on the topic:
"It turns out that large numbers of those who experienced the 1930s Depression spoke about the time with great affection, claiming that the struggle gave their life meaning. Many even suggested people were happier then.
Potts doesn't deny that some suffering occurred, but it wasn't universal by any means. In any case, the research showed no long-term negative impacts on those who lived through the Depression.
Compared with the previous decade, the 1930s Depression saw unemployment leap threefold and bankruptcy double. Yet the overall health of the nation actually improved and malnutrition declined. What's more, infant mortality, general death rates and suicide fell as the Depression deepened.
Financial and material scarcity appears not to have led to widespread suffering but rather to greater community interaction, increased egalitarianism, a heightened sense of purpose through resourcefulness and, most surprisingly, enhanced overall wellbeing."
::View Article::
'Risking our Kids', a documentary aired on ABC on Tuesday night, was also extremely informative. The focus of the show was child health expert and former Australian of the year Professor Fiona Stanley who heads up The Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. The multi-disciplinary institute looks at how the next generation are raised in Australia and the effects of this on their physical and mental health. It is beginning to find that despite increasing affluence in our society, many health problems more often associated with adults are now being seen in alarming numbers in young children.
::View Documentary::
Professor Stanley reports that the most common health problem in young people today is depression, that the rate of adolescent male suicides has "quadrupled", and that 1 in 7 young Australians now have mental health problems which are serious enough to effect their daily lives.
1 in 4 Australian kids are apparently currently overweight or obese with type 2 diabetes, which was never a children disease, "rocketing up".
1 in 4 four children aged twelve to fifteen currently consume alcohol weekly, with 40 per cent of teenagers being supplied by their parents.
Of particular interest are the reported findings from studies being done in affluent suburbs in Western Australia: 2 in 5 five year-olds are deemed not up to the developmental level required to start school due to insufficient social development, communication abilities and physical health and wellbeing. Linked to this are findings of high levels of post natal depression among local mothers because of a lack of community resources and isolation from neighbours. Parents with affluent professions are not only shut up in their McMansions but also lack appropriate knowledge about child development, leaving them with no understanding regarding the needs of their children. The fact that Australia is only one of a few OECD countries yet to implement paid parental leave is also sighted as a significant concern.
Next time a politician tells you that your interests are bound to economic growth and economic 'prosperity' (read: materialism), don't take it for granted. Bear in mind that in any healthy society materialism is seen as a means to an end, not an end in itself.
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