This idea the economist has, that people ought to ...

2007-06-16T02:59:00.000+13:00

This idea the economist has, that people ought to be happy when the rest of the world is so much worse off, is just foolish. They know perfectly well that people are unhappy when they feel that they ought to have had it better.

So, you see people who enjoy a much more luxurious lifestyle than yourself, who definitively don't deserve it (I'm thinking of various sport, pop and movie stars, which Britain has plenty of). You feel less safe than you felt twenty years ago (bother that it may be more or less true, depending). You see that social mobility is abysmal, what you can attain is mostly determined by your parents. You see the PM going off to war even though a large majority is opposed - but Britons, unlike most in those multitudes of are worse off than them in absolute numbers, know that it wasn't supposed to be that way.

Comments on Social Policy Bonds blog: Britons - hypochondria or non-participation?

This idea the economist has, that people ought to ...