Ray, I quite like money as a measure of value, including happiness. When people decide how to spend their dollar, which means getting somebody else to do something for them that they are unable or unwilling to do themselves, they aim to maximize their personal position. Both parties improve their happiness.
Spending is tricky. We've all spent money and understand that sometimes we foolishly spend money on things which ironically make us less happy. So I won't pretend that people are always able to maximize the value to themselves of their spending.
But I think there it's a small proportion of people who can't normally judge their own values better than others can on their behalf. Which begs the question of why people vote for more government, more taxes and more government decisions on their behalf on how their money should be spent, instead of deciding themselves.
Acknowledging the difficulties, money is as good a measure as I can come up with. If the Malaysian chose to work in the factory instead of at whatever she previously did, I don't think a government committee on "true value" would make a better decision for her maximum happiness.
From your description, her experience is much the same as everyone who goes from young to old. Childhood and youth are idyllic years; they would be if the politicans would get out of the way. Few people escape the necessity to earn a living, which usually involves a shift from the preternaturally beautiful, tranquil and happy to being a cog in the machine.
I dare say the Malaysian population has boomed over the past 30 years, so it's not surprising there's some clear-felling. Each person wants some elbow room. If the community valued the trees enough, they would maintain them as a park and crowd into a smaller space.
A lot has gone with the wind Ray. In my village, it's a different world from growing up 50 years ago. Things which seemed eternal to me have long, long ago gone. But something else fills the gap. NZ Rail used to feature large in my life. Now it's a faint shadow it's past. People and goods roar along roads.
All sorts of things have been and gone, having run their life cycle or lost to better performing competitors.
There used to be a stream of passenger ships heading overseas. Now there's an international airport where I used to go fishing and the wharves get occasional cruise ships. Where I used to go rafting, there was a sewage treatment works built, which, along with other polluters, destroyed all life in the Manukau Harbour, which was a thriving marine ecological system in my youth, where I spent a lot of time fishing. The harbour is now coming back to life, quickly, since the polluters have been shut. Good riddance to them, though their workers were no doubt unhappy to be made redundant.
It's an unstable world Ray. Communities come and go, businesses, come and go, technologies come and go. If you look at what remains from centuries gone by in the human realm, there are two things that last [other than some crusty artifacts for the curious about our past], DNA and knowledge. The rest is soon gone with the wind even as we try to hold onto it.
In some ways the process is sad, but mostly it's good [blunders notwithstanding - such as killing the Manukau, putting lead in petrol which poisoned childrens' brains, permanently damaging them, giving Thalidomide to pregnant women].
Mqurice |
