Quote from: jupiviv on Mar 30, 2024, 12:25 AMHi everyone, just joined. Was a fan of this space/scene back in the 2010s. Good to see you guys are still around!

Always a pleasure when an old timer finds us again.  :)  Since we didn't launch the original doomstead Diner until Feb 2012,  I'll assume by "2010s" you are talking about the whole decade.  Unless you were with us on my Reverse Engineering Yahoo Group, which I began in around 2009 I think after being booted off of the PeakOil.com website and a couple of others as well.  Do you remember the ScreenID you used bacck in those days?  I don't recognize your current one.

Personally, I think stretching the term "wealthiest" to 40% of the FSoA population puts too many people in the category of living the "American Dream" comfortably enough to be really "happy", which also is a kind of nebulous, hard to define idea.

However, if you look at FSoA income distribution, just to make the Top 20% of earners, you have to be making $100K/year.



Can you own a McMansion, have 2 late model carz in your garage and have enough money left over to pay your medical insurance, college tuition for your kids (at least helping them out if not fully paying for it), cover emergency expenses like major car repairs or a new roof on the McMansion, and take the occasinal vacation or go to a nice restaurant once a month?  Do you have 6 months worth of money to pay your bills if you lose your job?  Are you actually happy with the job you do have even if it is reasonably secure?

These are just the basic financial bellweathers for happiness, because if you don't feel secure financially, it's tough to be really "happy".  Then there are the less tangible things, like your marriage.  Are you and your spouse still happily married after 20 years with a great sex life (with each other, lol), and neither of you depends on antidepressants, legal or illegal drugs or alcohol to take the edge off a few times a week or even every day?  Your kids are both doing well in school and are happy with the sex equipment they were born with?  They have decent social lives where they actually meet people IRL, not just text each other all day on their iphones?

IMHO, I think few people in the FSoA who earn $100K/year would characterize themselves as happy.  Compared to another person of the same age and stage of life who is making min wage and grossing $50K working 2 jobs they are probably happi-er, but not really happy.  Perhaps they are satisfied with where they are if their debts aren't too big and they have a netflix subscription to keep them entertained after work, but I don't think that qualifies as happiness.

Finland is supposedly the happiest country, where their incomes are lower, but much more evenly distributed across the population.  They still have some sense of community in Finland I think, at least based on one documentary I saw while waiting in the Pain Clinic for my mnthly appointment to renew my opiates scrip.

So, IMHO, I think to have a reasonable shot at being happy in the FSoA, you need to be in the top 10%, not 40%.  But again, it's hard to say because it's hard to define happiness.

RE