I have no idea how anyone could possibly feel happy when there's misery everywhere and no one's doing anything about it. We're watching Friedman's unregulated free market experiment fail right in front of our eyes and the only ones who don't understand it are the ridiculously wealthy and a bunch of powerless politicians who eventually resort to insider trading like all the other really "successful" ones. Those are the real optics. That's what people see.
@esaeger there's not misery "everywhere." I think you are mistaking the US for "everywhere." The tide is turning, albeit slowly.
"Free-market enthusiasts’ place in the history of economic thought will remain secure. But thinkers like Milton Friedman leave an ambiguous and puzzling legacy, because it is the interventionists who have succeeded in economic history, where it really matters."
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/milton-friedman-s-magical-thinking
There is misery everywhere. But, if people don't find a measure of happiness in their lives they would soon be so depressed as to not want to live anymore. Which would leave no one in a position to have a care of making any changes.
@sugar0addict
Oh sure. The collective unhappiness of such a massive swath of humanity gets to me sometimes, that's really it.
@esaeger Perhaps you will feel better knowing that I have spent a great deal of my life feeling incredibly unhappy.