My View of Capitalism
Several years ago, Tom Shadyac was a role model for success. Hollywood blockbusters Tom directed such as Bruce Almighty and Liar Liar made him a very wealthy man. He had the life that most people dream about: having a luxury house in Beverly Hill, travelling with private jets, and owning vacation homes all over the country. However, this luxury life did not bring him any joy. "I was standing in the house that my culture had taught me was a measure of the good life," Tom recalls in his documentary film I Am. "I was struck with one very clear, very strange feeling: I was no happier." Tom then made an assertion that nothing in nature takes more than it needs, and capitalism is one of the factors that drives our society …show more content…
Happiness is something that people cannot purchase. During the second half of 2013, 18 CEO class business elites committed suicide including the CEO of American Title insurance company Richard Talle (Publius). These 18 people were supposed to be very happy since they all accomplished significant achievement at their early age. However, in reality, wealth does not equal happiness. Just like Tom said in the movie, these 18 business elites suffered a serious “mental illness”, and they were breaking the law of nature by taking much more wealth than they actually need. The additional wealth comes with substantial opportunity cost: these people could have spent more time with their family or done things that they like to do, but they chose to make more money. In the paper Beyond Money: Toward an Economy of Well-Being written by Ed Diener and Martin Seligman, they construct an analysis of more than 150 studies on wealth and happiness. Based on their research, Diener and Seligman then concluded that “economic indicators have glaring shortcomings as approximations of well-being across nations. Although economic output has risen steeply over the past decades, there has been no rise in life satisfaction during this period, and there has been a substantial increase in depression and distrust.”
Several years ago, Tom Shadyac was a role model for success. Hollywood blockbusters Tom directed such as Bruce Almighty and Liar Liar made him a very wealthy man. He had the life that most people dream about: having a luxury house in Beverly Hill, travelling with private jets, and owning vacation homes all over the country. However, this luxury life did not bring him any joy. "I was standing in the house that my culture had taught me was a measure of the good life," Tom recalls in his documentary film I Am. "I was struck with one very clear, very strange feeling: I was no happier." Tom then made an assertion that nothing in nature takes more than it needs, and capitalism is one of the factors that drives our society …show more content…
Happiness is something that people cannot purchase. During the second half of 2013, 18 CEO class business elites committed suicide including the CEO of American Title insurance company Richard Talle (Publius). These 18 people were supposed to be very happy since they all accomplished significant achievement at their early age. However, in reality, wealth does not equal happiness. Just like Tom said in the movie, these 18 business elites suffered a serious “mental illness”, and they were breaking the law of nature by taking much more wealth than they actually need. The additional wealth comes with substantial opportunity cost: these people could have spent more time with their family or done things that they like to do, but they chose to make more money. In the paper Beyond Money: Toward an Economy of Well-Being written by Ed Diener and Martin Seligman, they construct an analysis of more than 150 studies on wealth and happiness. Based on their research, Diener and Seligman then concluded that “economic indicators have glaring shortcomings as approximations of well-being across nations. Although economic output has risen steeply over the past decades, there has been no rise in life satisfaction during this period, and there has been a substantial increase in depression and distrust.”