I imagine they've got to be at least a little happier but probably not by a whole lot
Weird to think that's why the rest of us have to be held hostage
I am very high right now, I feel like this makes sense but if it doesn't then that's why
There's two opposing feelings about this. One is that they aren't really happier and are pretty miserable being slaves to their wealth. But that feels like cope. A way to make ourselves feel better about not being in that position. The other is that they are much happier and whatever misery they experience is only relative to the peak elation they feel, which is miles above our peaks. Their range of coping mechanisms for sadness are so far greater than yours it's not even funny. Practically any thought they have can mobilize dozens, hundreds, thousands to make it happen.
Imagine being free of your material conditions and the happiness that would bring. They are free from material conditions. There is no food they can't have. There is no cleaner water for them to drink. They have several estates, not homes, worth more than some entire economies. They have people to defend them from harm. They do not feel cold, or hot unless they want to. There's nothing tethering them down. Now you can say that's exactly the point, they're bored. But there's so much you can do that you only become bored after decades of the lifestyle. And even then you can cope with your boredom by shaping policy and continuously gaining wealth like a game. The boredom you feel, staring at a black rectangle on a beige wall for decades because TV is one of the few distractions in your life isn't the same as them getting bored because they've been to all the million-dollar resorts in the western hemisphere.
But if you look at, for example, the development of technologies, things that were insane novelties become commonplace and boring so quickly. They have basically unlimited resources, sure, but there's a powerful force pulling on their emotional state to return it to "meh" over time.
And I don't think they could ever feel so fantastic that it's in proportion to how much more property they have
i've spent about 6 months in bhutan. it's far from a perfect country but I enjoyed my time there immensely and they do a lot of things right. i'd go back if i could
i'd rather not get into specifics since it's such a small country and so few people go there but that visa fee is only for tourism and i wasn't there as a tourist. if you have any other questions about the country though let me know, just keep in mind my knowledge is limited
Bhutan is the only carbon-negative country in the world.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/asia/bhutan/carbon-negative-country-sustainability/
Happiness is just fulfilling either your own sentimental ideals or materialistic goals. The wealthy get the latter but alienate them selves from the former. It's like my GF asked me recently if I won the lottery what would I do. Aside from "do a lot of shit I couldn't even get in to right now" as my answer, she asked "wouldn't you buy a bunch of guitars?" and my reply was I'd probably buy like 1 guitar but I'd rather make my own guitars if I had the time space and resources to learn how.
To which she replied "well aren't you just fucking perfect". But it's true, not that I'm perfect, but if I bought a bunch of guitars I'd have no reason to pursue building them and would never be able to achieve that flavor of happiness and satisfaction.
The most powerful? Hell no. You don't get there without hollowing out a bunch of parts of you that make you human to make room for a drive to pathologically aggregate capital and power. You like things that are prestigious, not for any intrinsic value. Chapo described Donald Trump in this light and I think about how predictable his tantrums about the election were. How we could know, the moment news broke about his coronavirus case, what he would say if he survived (i.e. virus isn't that bad). And there are billionaires worth a lot more than him!
There are, I imagine, people with a lot of money and freedom. Billionaire is an absurd concept, but there are people with a net worth ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to several millions of dollars who are probably living it up. Rags to riches stories, inherited wealth, and older professionals would be there. I keep it close to my heart, and you'd have to work hard to jostle it from my grip, that escaping a 9 to 5 would be a profoundly satisfying venture and spiritually liberating.
As a guy that spent the summer working maybe 7 hours because of COVID19 scheduling and nobody was checking on me, I can tell you just not working 8 hours a day is a huge deal. Like, amazing. Throw in random Fridays I took off with PTO. Some sort of job security and knowing that every dollar I made just went to myself? Amazing!! If I had a budget to go on trips, buy the toys I wanted, and could do highend take-out for most meals? Easily two or three times happier. But all that is like $100k/yr lawyer money or something. It levels off after that.
You have something that people who make a lot of money rarely do: enough.
Time freedom and focusing on the now is key. But yeah, I'm very lucky. Also student debt relief when?
Not really unless you're talking about famous people or the ultra, mega wealthy.
There's millions of people out there who quietly have a couple million, maybe even more, and basically live in full automated luxury communism already. A lot of them are either old or miserable misers, though.
I think the thing about them is their baseline level of stress is far lower than ours. They don't have to worry about the basic needs that we do: housing, food, transportation, are not things that worry them.
Now, the Hedonic treadmill that everyone keeps mentioning is real. The only high profile rich person who comes to mind as having avoided that is Tom from Myspace. Now, of course there could be others,that we don't know.
Yes, but only insofar as they have basic material security and more free time. Those are the most valuable things more wealth can give you. I'm pretty sure there have been studies into the effects of greater and greater sums of wealth, and past a certain point (roughly what would make a person materially safe with vacation time) more money didn't do anything for their sense of happiness. edit I see people posted the study I'm talking about in the comments already
I think the alienation under capitalism bit still applies though. It's probably not good for a person to psychologically detach themselves from the rest of humanity like that. edit Though I do wonder if a person who genuinely only cares about their personal comfort and status has an easier time being happy simply because there are fewer boxes to check? Like, if you genuinely care about the state of the world, your own personal fulfillment cannot be enough, because the state of the world as a whole matters to you deeply.
Don't dwell on this shit too much though. I can understand how upsetting it can be wondering if the shitty people are having a blast while the rest of us and our loved ones suffer. But, agonizing over finding a way that "actually, the most powerful people aren't happy, so really they lose anyway" bullshit that doesn't and shouldn't matter, is simply wasting time and working yourself up. Whether or not our class enemies enjoy or suffer a certain psychological state is irrelevant to improving our material conditions.
I was thinking about this earlier. They're probably not much happier but much further from despair, which is its own kind of comfort.
If you were mentally healthy you probably would go insane having that much money. But they're not mentally healthy. They're developmentally disabled. The lack of ethics that took them to where they are have rewarded them time and time again. They're broken.
I think they live in a world of hate and fear. Hate for the people lower-class than them but fear that the majority (also lower in class) will take away their stuff. Probably also fear of being dead and losing all their stuff and status, ultimately losing control?
But they lack regret for their actions or a sense of personal responsibility or empathy, many have "Dark Triad" personality characteristics identified by psychologists as narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Which make it impossible to admit guilt over anything they have done.
