The TEDTalk “The Paradox of Choice” by Barry Schwartz has a claim/conclusion that paralysis is a consequence of having too many choices. One premise in the video was “With so many options to choose from people find it very difficult to choose at all.” Another premise was when he mentioned this example “You offer 50 funds — 10 percent fewer employees participate than if you only offer five. Why? Because with 50 funds to choose from, it’s so damn hard to decide which fund to choose, that you’ll just put it off till tomorrow, and then tomorrow and then tomorrow and tomorrow.” What Barry is trying to say is that it was so hard to choose, that people postponed making a decision and that can affect them negatively and they can miss out on potential gains.
I agree with Barry that paralysis is the consequence of having too many choices. It is detrimental to our well- being and we set unrealistic expectations and blame ourselves for choosing what we believe to be the wrong decision. Another premise is that having too many choices decreases a person’s ability to take action. Too many choices can leave you dissatisfied and disappointed.
In the article “From the ‘perfect’ salary to keeping up with the Joneses, here’s how money affects your happiness” the conclusion is “More money doesn’t make us happier but making more relative to other people does.” The premise is “we have an evolutionary tendency to compare ourselves to other people, Klontz says. “We’re very much wired on a survival level to see how we compare and where we stack up next to everybody else.” This supports the conclusion and convinces the reader that having similar salaries to other people makes us happier. Another premise is “when we feel like we can’t maintain the same standard of living as our peers, it makes us unhappy.” Having similar living conditions and having a similar salary to your friends and people around you makes you happier.
I agree with this that money doesn’t make us happier because if the people around you are making the same amount of money as you, then most likely you are going to be happy and satisfied as well because there will be no competition or dissatisfaction that someone has this and you do not. If everyone around you makes around the same money as you, then most likely their living conditions are similar to yours.
One thought on “Ahmad Rahmaan DB- 5”
Hello Ahmad, I found that you believe money does not make us happier interesting. I believe money pays for happiness. If we are fortunate enough to make a lot of money, many of us including myself would spend the money on things that I would enjoy. It can be either for splurging on yourself or donating to charity.