Its easy to be happy when you're rich


Hector says isn't rich but he is certainly upper middle class, you don't get a fancy apartment overlooking the Thames, a fancy office, and the luxury to take 6mo off your job when you want to.

Movies like this like to portray poor people (like the Africans, the monks, the workers in China) as happy in a few cliched moments, the reality is life for poor people is constant misery and working hard to survive with very few moments of real joy and they still find time to be hospitable to strangers.

Rich people like to think this means they are happy, and they can go back to their life of luxury and try to 'find' the meaning behind it all.

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"the reality is life for poor people is constant misery and working hard to survive with very few moments of real joy and they still find time to be hospitable to strangers"

Your perspective of reality is depressing and very skewed. The reality is life is what we make of it. Constant misery is a result of choices, not income. Without making any assumptions about your economic status, I would say that money is the least of your problems.

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I was born in a very poor country and have seen poverty (real poverty, not what we think it is in the West) for most of my life first hand, so unless you've experienced it, you have no idea how miserable it is.

You are right that money is not an immediate concern for me (as the fact that I am posting on a website using a computer and Internet proves), it is not so for my family and many others I know back home.

Its easy to say 'constant misery is a result of choices' etc, these are just platitudes. I can assure you that that's not true in the slightest. A positive attitude does not feed you or your children. 'Money isn't everything' only applies once you are above a certain level, below that it IS everything.

Sorry to go off on this tangent.

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If you believe that all poor people are miserable you are simply wrong. Just because you are poor and miserable does not mean all poor people are miserable. It just means you are miserable and surrounded by similarly unhappy poor people. Such a belief also demonstrates your ignorance.

All poor people are poor. All rich people, rich. Miserable, miserable.

Being rich does not make you happy any more than being poor makes you miserable. If you disagree then you are unwilling to consider the possibility that other people have their own perspectives. Which makes you ignorant as well as miserable.

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For the record, the difference between poor and starving is large relative to this topic. If someone is unable to provide food for their child, that someone should be miserable. I am not insinuating it is their fault, only that a lack of food is a lack of a necessity. Money is not a necessity, it is a means of survival. Survival and happiness can be achieved without money as long as food, water, shelter, and the absence of threat of harm are consistent.

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the simple message that this film conveys is that money is the key sustainer of happiness

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What a wonderful discussion, everyone!

What I would add is that, after watching this film, I've understood that happiness may stem from these things below, in this order:

1. Money / Financial stability / Resources to live a decent life
2. Love ~ Family ~ Friends
3. Sharing your resources and love (e.g. the doctor in Africa)

Am I close to being right?

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I completely disagree with the statement that "Its easy to be happy when you're rich". Many wealthy people are miserable because they associate happiness with outside objects that they can buy. Notice how people like this are never content, they buy a house, then buy a bigger house, they buy a car, then buy another. These objects never satisfy them. Happiness cannot be bought. It comes from within, from choosing to be happy with what you have and appreciating everything in your life, and life itself, good or bad. It's not easy, especially with all the social and media conditioning out there, all of the marketing brainwashing people. But, it is achievable if you open your mind. I think that's what happened in the end of this movie, Hectar appreciated his girlfriend and his life, which in turn made him happy.

It's not just wealthy people who are affected by this false happiness either. People often associate happiness with achievements, such as; I'll be happy when I find a partner, get married, have kids, have a house. It never works as these people will always set the next goal thinking they will be happy when they reach it. You have to be happy in yourself alone, in the now, everything else that follows is just a bonus. People often think they are happy when they are not.

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You didn't get what I was saying *sigh*

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I agree (although the entire concept of "happiness" is questionable). As someone who had to bootstrap their way up so as not have to spend all their energy/time on basic survival, yes, then there is a threshold after which you can unleash your creativity (or happiness pursuit, whatever...) as long as you haven't become a total sheep by that point.

Brute Sanity (2016)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5014122/
http://imaginarydanger.com

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Money helps, but it isn't the lone factor and the positive effects of money peter out once you have enough to live comfortably (I think one study put the number at around 70k a year or so). Research also shows that your personality, which is a trait that you cant alter, is the largest determinant of your personal happiness. That is a grim truth for people who are perpetually unhappy. It pretty much says there is little hope for them and even winning Powerball wouldn't affect their overall happiness long term (would obviously cause a short term bump right after winning though)

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only if you were poor before

otherwise you can't notice that you are rich

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During my lifetime, specifically ever since I had to start working, I've done both office jobs and menial ones, but my life was always more of an emotional misery, than an overall one despite being poor.

The one point you've missed in this movie, and apparently many of critics/haters did, that the script mirrors the adventures of Tintin, opening a window into the lives of people we usually don't meet. Connoisseurs of Hergé know, that before he wrote about China, he was blissfully unaware of the actual conditions of people back then, especially in Africa, where Congolese remember their history a "tad bit differently", than Belgians like to admit.

Regardless, how rich he is, we only get to see the world as Hector experiences it with the naivety of Tintin.

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