Comment by k310

People seek happiness. But when you drill down to what that means, you'll find that people have mostly sought things that bring them unhappiness. Such is our culture.

Everything changes. Everyone is different. Support and encouragement can be as valuable as money to someone who is short of either or both. You have unique talents. Share them.

Yet, people confuse the means with the end, so money often becomes the end, rather than reasonable comfort and happiness, needing an army of bodyguards, hoarding money or putting it into mega-yachts, which, as the saying goes, are a hole in the water into which you pour money. Since someone else can always have more, the rich can never have what we slobs can, "enough".

And unlike our new AI overlords, there is plenty of joy in "working things out", because it's still (last time I checked) a world of people, and joy again in interacting with others with our unique (emphasis unique) knowledge, experiences, sensory and cognitive mechanisms, and emotions. That's what makes great literature, art, and even science exciting. Learn from others. Teach. Teachers learn more than their students.

Just as we "work things out" to solve problems, where it's the process that we learn and get to share, we can "work things out" with others, whatever the topic or need.

I'm in that 70's range, approaching 80, and still helping my scattered family with whatever's in the IRA and social security. This addresses two of your points. No immense wealth coming and living in the boondocks. I plan to move to address one of those.

Good for you for thinking about this now. I was quite preoccupied by the war and draft at your age. And we have turmoil again, internally.

Division as in "divide and conquer" is how this world gets into these detestable situations, and always for exploitation. I strive for a more just society based on Buddhist principles.

Only 4 of the 8 stages of the eightfold path are needed to transform the world, otherwise we just repeat these disasters over again.

1. Right understanding (all is change and process.) 2. Right intention (I like to think of this as un-greed, helping others and seeking "just enough". 3. Right Speech (be truthful, kind, and seek areas of agreement) and 4. Right action. ( I think of it as the golden rule, so scorned and reversed in our society.) You can add Right livelihood. I always took this for granted, never doing harmful things, even in aerospace. But people rarely think of the consequences of their work. You know what I mean.

You may find that helping spread these principles will make life better for everyone.