US Politics Mega-thread - Page 718

On December 16 2013 09:14 Chocolate wrote:

It's easy to think that rich people have it made but I can guarantee that rich kids' lives can also suck.

On December 16 2013 09:17 sam!zdat wrote:


no, it's almost worse, because you have everything but you are still unhappy so there is nothing left to blame

On December 16 2013 09:17 xDaunt wrote:

It's all too common for kids from rich families to go bad early and have shitty lives thereafter. Money doesn't replace good parenting.

On December 16 2013 09:19 xDaunt wrote:

More specifically, the lack of satisfaction comes from the fact that the rich kids aren't given an opportunity to go earn anything for themselves. Being spoiled results in real psychological problems.

On December 16 2013 09:17 sam!zdat wrote:


no, it's almost worse, because you have everything but you are still unhappy so there is nothing left to blame

On December 16 2013 09:22 Paljas wrote:

-.-
come on

On December 16 2013 09:22 Paljas wrote:

-.-
come on

On December 16 2013 09:06 DoubleReed wrote:


Are you actually trying to justify a two tiered justice system? What exactly is your point?

On December 16 2013 09:22 Paljas wrote:

-.-
come on

On December 16 2013 09:45 coverpunch wrote:

I'm saying it's not two-tiered, but it's dependent on the narrative that can be constructed. We don't have a class system per se, but we have a system that makes a lot of assumptions.

For example, we take it for granted that people who attended Harvard are among the most competent in our country. Or as science is having the debate, we assume that a publication in Nature, Science, or Cell is a prestigious and important paper.

I'm not judging whether that's right or good, but it's not correct to say we have a two tiered justice system.

It's not two-tiered so much as "the justice system is as merciful as the representation you can afford."

On December 16 2013 09:28 xDaunt wrote:

I don't mean to be a snob, but apparently you haven't been around a lot of affluent families. Sam is exactly right. I've seen plenty of kids get ruined by parents who give them everything.

On December 16 2013 12:25 DoubleReed wrote:


Uhm... did I misread you? No I didn't. You said:



That's just saying the same thing with different words. We're supposed to have equal protection under the law, not protection under the law according to your checkbook. That's a basic proposition of Due Process.

You're acting like there is nothing to be done, or that nothing can be done, but the fact is that we have a terrible public defender system in this country. It is one of many issues that can absolutely be fixed with pragmatic and sensible ideas. Here's a nice little article on how terrible our public defender system has gotten. It is absolutely a two-tiered justice system.

On December 16 2013 13:26 Livelovedie wrote:
Okay, some studies then... social science would be fine.

Many of today's most unhappy teens probably made the honor roll last semester and plan to attend prestigious universities, according to research by psychologist Suniya Luthar, PhD, of Columbia University's Teachers College. In a series of studies, Luthar found that adolescents reared in suburban homes with an average family income of $120,000 report higher rates of depression, anxiety and substance abuse than any other socioeconomic group of young Americans today.

"Families living in poverty face enormous challenges," says Luthar, who has also studied mental health among low-income children. "But we can't assume that things are serene at the other end."

Levine believes that what's actually driving upper-middle-class teens' mental health troubles is a fear of failure. Parents, she says, worry that their children won't make it in an increasingly competitive world, leading to an obsession over standardized test scores and getting their kids into the right schools.

"Parents are worried that if their children don't get into Harvard, they're going to be standing with a tin cup on the corner somewhere," Levine says.

On top of perfectionism, teens often can't deal with situations that don't go their way, perhaps because their parents protected them from disappointments earlier in life, Levine says. In fact, teens who indicated that their parents overemphasized their accomplishments were most likely to be depressed or anxious and use drugs, according to a 2005 study led by Luthar in Current Directions in Psychological Science (Vol. 14, No. 1).

On December 16 2013 18:51 WhiteDog wrote:

Social studies can't really define happyness everything equal, since it is different in every social group, class or whatever. Studying happyness in all group is impossible, unless you ask them "did that give you happyness" or "what is happyness to you ?". You cannot say "this social group is on average more happy than this one" because happyness doesn't have the same definition in each group... So you resort to "this group says they are more happy than this one", which doesn't quite cut it if you are actually a tad bit cautious about the "scientific" part of research in social science.

There are notorious studies in France on "Is working a necessity to be happy ?". Rich usually says no, as they have other ways to be happy. Poor almost always respond yes, because they link "working" with the wage it gives, and not with the activity they accomplish (they are not asking themselves : "can I be happy doing this activity" ? but rather "Do I need that money ?"). How can you compare the two ?

Now to go back to the subject, most of you are linking the act of consumption with happyness. It's more an ephemere pleasure, that comes and go. Which explains why this girl need 3 BMW, each purchase giving her a small satisfaction.