Happiness is.....

[Primrose]

Plum Pudding - I do so agree about not getting into debt. Some of us were raised before credit cards actually came into being and it was totally natural to save up for something and only to buy it when you could afford it. I feel totally shocked sometimes when I hear about the huge sums of money that people owe on credit cards and the sad thing is that often the money has been spent on things that they could actually have done without and still survived.

I think Alan has a point about Happiness and Wellbeing not necessarily being the same thing. You can have a nice home and a secure job and yet be living a life which is as miserable as sin because emotionally all is not well in your life.

Yes, I have completed the survey. Actually I wish, in retrospect I'd printed it out first and given it a little more thought before answering as I'm sure the more I reflected, the more insight I would have been able to offer.

[Nature's Babe]

Hi Primrose, sure you will have contributed well, at least this government are seeking our opinions, government were derided before for not listening and now we can have our say many don't bother and say its a waste of money, either way they can't win everyones approval, they have an unenviable task because we can't continue to overspend and whatever government is in power cuts have to be made - looks like the Irish are in for the same deep cuts. and their predicament may have effects elsewhere, especially us. Plumpudding, yes we should save first, most housewives understand we can't spend what we don't have, looks like being a bit of a roller coaster, I'm glad our gardens can save us some money.

[Tony Hague]

government were derided before for not listening and now we can have our say many don't bother and say its a waste of money

Do not make the mistake of assuming that because you can have your say, someone must be listening I have long believed that public consultation is a sham process that must be done to tick the box before the government (or whoever) do what they intended all along. This was confirmend by a recent news story out here in the East where a hospital ward was closed two weeks before the end of the consultation period !

[Johnboy]

Hi Tony,
Party Conferences are the medium to judge public consultation.
They discuss and pass resolutions and then the politicians do what they want and more often than not it is nothing like the resolution voted and passed by the conference.
If they can do this to their own members what chance has the general public got?
JB.

[madasafish]

Lovely link..Thanks..

It's all very well consulting people. How many will tell you they want to see their own benefits/wages/pension frozen or cut?
None.

Economic neccessity means at times you cannot have what you want.

See the Irish as a terrible example.

[Nature's Babe]

There was consultation on where the cuts should fall, I read lots of the posts and they do seem to have listened to some of the positive ideas which came from both individuals and groups, but because of the economic situation there is no way they can make the cuts palatable to everyone. It is a coalition government and neither party can have it all their own way, some compromises have to be made on both sides we elected them and we have to be grown up about it and let them get on with it. As masdafish says no one is going to volunteer for the cuts, so in the end government decides. I don't really agree with the electoral system that gave us this result but we will all have a chance to alter that soon.

[JohnN]

Whilst agreeing entirely with all that NB and Primrose say about "happiness", there is one overriding factor that spoils it all. That is my belief that everything we value in life - our children's futures, employment, the health service, food in our tummies, a roof over our heads etc - depends entirely on the continuing expansion of the Western economies, and the realisation that this cannot continue without the total collapse of everything that keeps us comfortable and civilized. The oil running out, global warming and religious wars will be just the start!
Sorry to rain on your parades

[Nature's Babe]

You are right John, we can stay in denial, act like the ostrich, or start getting to grips with reality, oil is in decline, present growth is unsustainable, and we need to adapt and adjust.