Conservatism Today: It's like liberalism, but without the sadness.
(NYU researchers) found that... the reason for this happiness disparity can be distilled to the separate ideologies of liberals and conservatives.
The authors argue that a conservative belief acts as a psychological buffer in a world of increasing inequality. The idea is that conservatives tend to rationalize inequality as the result of a fair process in a meritocracy, whereas liberals tend to see inequality as inherently unjust.
..(N)ot only do right-wingers report greater life satisfaction across cultures, but the gap widens in those countries where quality of life is low.
Finally, the authors looked at U.S. data spanning the past 30 years, and found that increasing economic inequality is associated with the decrease in the nation’s overall happiness. But noted they found that liberals’ self-reported happiness decreased more steeply than that of conservatives.
I previously discussed some of this in Conservative Living: The Key to a Successful Life. A liberal friend on my favorite political discussion board responded by writing, "When you don't worry as much about the ethical or moral effects of your life, you do tend to be happy."
That's a common, but wholly incorrect response from the left. When I look at the moral and ethical effects of my life, I'm pretty happy. I guess I understand how some liberals might not be. But the reason I don't worry about the ethical or moral effects of my life is because I already know what they are, and they aren't worrisome.
The bigger reason I'm happy, is that I don't worry about the moral or ethical effects of other people's lives. As long as you aren't harming someone else, I pretty much couldn't care less what you are doing. It's simple self-reliance, a trait that those of us on the right believe in and the left seeks to obliterate.
Note that the article had more bad news for liberals. They are going to get more unhappy.
(I)ncreasing economic inequality is associated with the decrease in the nation’s overall happiness. But noted they found that liberals’ self-reported happiness decreased more steeply than that of conservatives.
At
some point, other than flat-out stealing people's money and giving it
to others, I'd like liberals to explain how they expect to stop the
increase in economic equality.
It
doesn't take a brain surgeon to tell you that the poorest person in
America next year won't be much richer than the poorest guy this year
is. But money grows if not squandered, so the richest person in America
will nearly always be richer than he was the year before.
It must suck when such obvious realities make you sad. Grow up, people.
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