Brief or talking points on "Material Prosperity alone will make for a happy nation".?

Question

Actually I have to speak a debate on the above topic on Monday. Its urgent if anyone can spare few thoughts would be great.

Answer 1

The key word here is 'alone'. Obviously a certain level of physical comfort is necessary for happiness, both on an individual and national level. However, certain non-material elements are required by us highly conscious humans if we are to approach anything like Happiness - acceptance by our society, warmth, love, recognition, the freedom to be creative, the freedom to choose, etc. Imagine an only somewhat benevolent dictator sharing the wealth evenly among the people, but disallowing the slightest dissent or curtailing creative impulses. Would that nation be happy?

Answer 2

material has to do with every thing but i dont think it will do that alone

Answer 3

You really need to be doing some research instead of being here - - start by going to Amazon.com and finding a few authors of books, then do a search.

You might also want to look in to some works done by Psychologists.

All I can say, is that I TOTALLY disagree with that statement.

That is saying that if we all have all the stupid little "things" we all seem to think we cannot live without, then we all will be happy and get along as a whole.

WELL, HOW and WHO is going to insure we ALL have what we want?  Is Uncle Sam going to mail every human with a mailbox $100,000.00?  That would make me happy until someone tried to steal the stereo from the 1969  442 I would buy with most of that money. THEY spent their cash on dope and overpriced clothes but REALLY want my stereo....

I was raised among extremely wealthy very influential famous people - they had everything you could imagine, BUT they were STILL unhappy, unsettled, paranoid, lonely most the time, cynical, extremely defensive, and did not seek or enjoy physical contact - even with family.  HAPPY?

FAR FROM IT! "Stuff" is just stuff. It does not provide the REAL things that we all NEED - security within a unit (family), appreciation for and from self and others for US (not what we have) and the ability to properly communicate - "stuff" can disappear in a wink of an eye - poof!

A happy nation can only be IF we ALL were to WORK TOGETHER FOR US ALL.  I don't see that happening in my lifetime, that's for sure.