The Economics of Happiness

For every person who has gained a rupee, there is a person who has lost one. For every business thats at profit, there is one which is at an equal loss. Can the same rule be extended to happiness?? What exactly would this mean?? For every person who becomes happy at a certain instant, would there be someone who is becoming sad as a result??

Disclaimer:
I dont have a clue what makes me think of such things. But for those who are still interested in this. Read on!!

There is one major obstacle that I face while tackling this problem. While money was a determinate quantity, happiness is not. While we can measure the amount of money one has, we cant measure how happy a person is. So lets assume a thing, if something good/desirable happens, then it is considered a happy event and vice versa.

Now let us apply this to a few specific cases:

1) Classroom Situation: Student A scores full marks in the test(out of 15). And he is the only person in the class who has done this.

Analysis: From our assumption, we can conclude that A's happiness quotient would increase. Lets see what happens to the others. For simpler understanding, lets divide the students based on the kind of marks that they have scored.

a) Students who have scored 14 and above: Most of the students will be happy with their scores. But there will be a select few who will be a little sad/frustrated because they have lost a chance to score full marks thanks to a very silly/miniscule error in their test.

b) Students between 10-14: Most of them will know that they can reach the elite category easily, and cross the thin line that exists between them and students of category (a). Some will be inspired, some will be satisfied, while some will be sad for sure because of the gap in performance despite the negligible gap in ability.

c) Students < 10: I dont think we need to consider this category because I really dont think they are worthy of comparison with both A and the students of category (a).

Conclusion: Happiness does lead to sadness.

2) Same as situation A. Only difference is that there are many people who have scored full marks in their test.

There is only one category of students that are worth consideration here. They are the many students who have scored in the 12-14 range who are feeling worse than they would have felt otherwise because of the number of people who have scored full marks.

Conclusion: Happiness leads to sadness, again.

Consider any other happening, there would always be someone sad for someone happy, some masochists for some sybarites and so on.. All this is a part of the intricate balance that is inherent in nature. Another reason I can think of is man's insatiable appetite for things he can do without, which keeps him whining all the time. There is no shortage of whiners in this world!! (Take the Arsenal football team for a start!! Man U rocks!!)

Consider a Utopian world in which everyone was happy. No one would even know what sadness felt like. Would the terms sadness and happiness even exist?? No. These are just causal responses by the human mind/heart to the surrounding conditions. Most people keep complaining about the vegetated lifestyles that they lead, but know one thing for a fact, our lives would be most boring without all this. I still don't know what made me write this post, but I ended up writing this for public viewing though I totally know for a fact that this would make sense only to very small section of readers. A similar analogy can be applied to the news channels of today, which thrive on delivering sensational news stories rather than stories which are morally/politically more important.

The earth, as created had everything in balance(Except Entropy, of course which keeps increasing!!!). Unfortunately man seems to be disrupting it, thanks to his promiscuous behaviour(Water, Energy etc to name a few). I have full faith in the disruptive powers of the human race, that there will be a time when even Emotional balance would be put to test. Very soon..

Where does this end?

I'm just walking on the road, I just look around and all I see is different people trying to cheat other people to earn money. One question that comes to my mind is "Why is there so much corruption". And theres only one answer that i could fathom "Greed". Greed is the only cause of all corruption. Everyone wants more than what they truly deserve. People want more money than they earn, students want more marks than they have actually have studied for. I am honest enough to admit that I've been a victim of my surroundings and have been forced to cheat a few times, but I am not proud of my deeds. Even the law-enforcers of this country, our policemen are the biggest cheaters and bribe takers, and it is a universally known fact. Money has now become the be-all and end-all of our life. Despite all the measures taken by our country to minimise the divide between the rich and the poor( Yes.. Reservations included), it is a known fact that the rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer. Tax evasion, corrupt politicians, government servants all add to the corruption. People say that "The government is so corrupt, why shouldn't we also be corrupt?". This is the start of a vicious circle. Where does this end?? I am baffled. This has been the case all my life, and I still dont see any sort of a solution.

I just remembered one book that I read called "The Art of War". In that there's a king who has a army which is highly indisciplined, so the king asks a general to discipline the soldiers. So the general calls one soldier and chops off his head, and tells the others that if they continue the same way, they would also suffer the same fate.

Moral: In order to bring discipline, you got to be disciplined.
This is the sort of determination required by the authorities in order to make a reasonable change. RDB is another well known example. Corruption is slowing the economic development of our country. Also the rich people are treating money like trash, they are spending like crazy and the biggest irony is that they still want more!

Also recent events like Pramod Mahajan's death, the fight between the Ambani brothers are all because of fights over money. Come on people, the Ambani brothers, ruined the reputation of Dhirubai Ambani who IMHO was a great man. Hope people learn something out of all this and we see a corruption free world, I know this is not possible in my life ;) but atleast some time in the future.

Controversy is Spice

What a game!! An absolute cracker from a neutral's point of view. My heart goes out to the Argentine fans here.

Well before the game started both teams had started with attacking formations. One notable change was bringing in Luis Gonzalez instead of Esteban Cambiasso. So before the start both teams were sending all the right signals.

Once the game started, both teams cancelled each other out and there were hardly any chances worth mentioning in the first half. The best chance came to Michael Ballack which he squandered. However, Tevez was impressive.

Then the second half started with a bang with Ayala scoring off a sublime corner delivered by Riquelme. This meant that Germany would be pushing forward with more men and try to get the equaliser. While analysing this game one thing that made the biggest difference was the kind of substitutions made by both the teams. Lets see.

1) Odonkor for Schneider:

Cause : Germany were a goal down and needed to atleast equalise to keep their chances alive. They were lacking in pace and Odonkor had impressed against Poland.

Effect : He impressed and caused Sorin some trouble, earned a few corners as well.

2) Leonardo Franco for Roberto Abbodanzieri:

Cause : Abbodanzieri's injury

Effect : Argentina had lost its Goalkeeper who was impressive so far. Also LF seemed to be short of confidence as well as match practice. Also it was a substitution which was effectively wasted, as it was not of any strategic importance. Blaming the defeat on LF would be stupid.

3) Esteban Cambiasso for JUAN ROMAN RIQUELME:

Cause : The decision to bring on Cambiasso was justified because they needed to strengthen their defence once they had scored and prevent Germany from scoring. But at what cost?

Effect : By replacing Riquelme they had removed the player who in more cases than not provides the killer ball either from set pieces or open play leading to a goal. It would have made more sense to take Lucho off. The fact that Pekerman did this despite JRR providing delivery to the one goal that Argentina scored is baffling to the extent of being stupid. So they would have found it difficult to score again if Germany equaised.

4) Julio Cruz for Hernan Crespo :

Cause : God knows!

Effect : Score was 1-0 when this substitution was made. I see absolutely no sense as to why this was made. Scoring was not a priority at this stage nor was it a possibility after this substitution(Messi/Saviola would have been a better option, but it wasnt needed at all). There was no need to bring on Cruz/Messi or take off Crespo at this stage. Argentina were leading and they just had to bide their time(10 mins). Especially after one substitution wasted it would have made sense to keep this substitution if needed later.

5) Tim Borowski for Bastian Schweinsteiger:

Cause : Schweinsteiger wasnt making much of an impact so far, it made sense to bring some fresh legs on.

Effect: Great flick which led to the goal by Klose. People say the cross by Ballack was great, but the flick was equally good. And a great finish to match that.

6) Neuville for Klose:

Cause : Klose was suffering from cramps.

Effect : Neuville took free kicks in the absence of Schweinsteiger and Schneider, and added pace up front.

Extra time was nothing great. And penalty shootouts are a lottery as everyone knows. Overall a great game, worth watching if you are a neutral.

It was dissapointing to see such a fight erupting at the end of such a great game. Best of luck to Germany, Argentina can go home with their heads held high.

However, Pekerman made up for his good managing so far by doing something stupid.. It was expected after all the tinkering he had done before the World Cup. Good thing he resigned.. He is better with the youth teams..

The happiest person at the end of all this would be Jurgen Klinsmann.. The decision to play Lehmann ahead of Kahn was one of the most controversial things that he did and was subjected to such a lot of criticism by a lot of people including me :).. He has silenced everyone with this performance. Lehmann has proved he is up there if not better than Kahn.