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Relatively Awesome

Started by Will Wilkinson · 9 months ago

This is the best article I’ve read on the relationship between income, autonomy, status, and happiness. It happens to be from the Onion. Best bit:
Braxton, who earns roughly one-fourth of what the firm’s lowest-seniority full-time employees make, said he ha ... Continue reading »

11 comments

  • Matt

    1 year ago

    Sure, overall abundance is important, but if the free-riding charge is correct, then aren't you and me free-riders, too? (Or is the point that anyone who takes a job and then doesn't work hard - to some sufficient degree - is free-riding on the labor of others?)
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  • Rick Perlstein

    1 year ago

    All well and good. Until Braxton wants to have a child, let alone move into the kind of neighborhood with good enough schools for his son or daughter to qualify for a liberal arts degree (see Robert Frank). If Braxton is among the tiny fraction of Americans whose wellbeing can be vouchsafed living like a graduate student well into middle age - I'm part of that fraction myself - fine. Otherwise, this post is radically glib, quite nearly nihilist.
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  • Will Wilkinson

    1 year ago

    Matt, Yeah. We're free-riders. In good societies, the cost of internalizing all the benefits from production are prohibitive, so everyone gets a ton of stuff for free. Free-rider is often used pejoratively, but I mean it here as a good thing.
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  • Will Wilkinson

    1 year ago

    Rick, See my reply to Ezra just posted. Nearly nihilist? That people are able to make choices about the kind of life they want and take responsibility for it? You're being silly.

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  • Matt

    1 year ago

    But isn't part of the joke that Braxton isn't really rich (monetarily), and that he's chosen a different way of life than pursuing the "fucking brass ring"? Is your point that he can only make - or have that choice - in a land of plenty? I'm not completely sure I buy that. (Aren't obscure Russian poets also for obscure (poor) Russian people?)
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  • josh

    1 year ago

    Matt,

    I suppose Russianpoets are for Russian people, but probably not for Haitian people. They only get obscure Haitian poets.
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  • david

    1 year ago

    While I don't 100% agree with Rick, I think it pays
    to consider that while Braxton is happy now, it is
    not certain that his current choices will allow him
    to be happy for another 10 years or 20 years. What
    should we optimize: happiness right NOW, or happiness
    over lifespan? I have no answer, it's just a question.
    Second comment is that Braxton may very well have
    considerable parental monetary support. It's hard to
    say, but we cannot say with any certainty that this
    anecdotal article reveals much. He may be free-riding
    in more ways than one.
    reply
  • kevin quinn

    1 year ago

    This is *The onion*, people. This is a spoof of the idea that the poor and powerless are really rich in what money can't buy - a perennial plank in the apologia for obscene inequality. Have you all ears of tin?
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  • kevin quinn

    1 year ago

    This is *The onion*, people. This is a spoof of the idea that the poor and powerless are really rich in what money can't buy - a perennial plank in the apologia for obscene inequality. Have you all ears of tin?
    reply
  • Will Wilkinson

    1 year ago

    You suppose a graduate of Wesleyan (#10 USNWR liberal arts college)is supposed to represent "the poor and powerless?" Or does my tin ear prevent me from grasping your subtle joke.
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  • kevin quinn

    1 year ago

    If you believe that the top of the corporate hierarchy is filled with people living joylesss existences and the bottom is occupied by free-spirited Wesleyan graduates, you've been at Cato too long!
    reply

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