We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.
– George Bernard Shaw
The above quotation popped up in an email today and did just what it was supposed to do…It made me stop and think about what it said.
Then it made me wonder. Can you consume happiness you do not create? Can you even consume happiness? Or is it only felt when it is “created” in yourself?
Then you have wealth…What is it? How is it produced? In our modern age, is the wealth produced from the manipulation of markets the same as the wealth created by the production of “things”, of products, of ideas? Does the ability to manipulate your way to wealth give you the right to consume the wealth produced by the multitude of others?
So as usual a meditation on happiness ends up as a meditation on the state of our political conundrum…Funny how that always happens.
Just sayin’…