- Who's happier, the rich or the poor?
If you could probe the hearts and minds of everyone who has ever lived, average their happiness over the course of their lives, and then neatly divide them into rich and poor, then I suspect the rich would be happier, but not much. The difference would be significant, but not enough for the poor to work and worry nearly as much as they do today about not being rich.But there is no such neat dividing line between rich and poor. Were there one, what would separate the two, namely, amount of ownership and the happiness it affords, becomes indisputably inconsequential at the time of death. All men are created—and destroyed—equal.
It is better to have the basics of food, shelter, clothing, and medicine, and one should try to earn enough money to satisfy the few desires that can be bought with it. But sacrificing one's life for the sake of it is irrational and a complete waste of time. Most people fail to realize this and spend their lives miserable, always looking forward to a happier future that never arrives due to that very fact.
Our best bet is to seize the day. In other words, play.
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