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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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DaeguKid
Joined: 09 Dec 2006
Location: Daegu
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tomato
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
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 Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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| That's why I hide behind my PC. |
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optik404
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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10years and they never gave him a raise. Thats messed up  |
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DorkothyParker
Joined: 11 Apr 2009
Location: Jeju
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| Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 7:07 pm Post subject: |
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Double bad because I have strong feeling regarding the rights of bicyclists.
I hope his murderer is haunted and can no longer engage in emotionally satisfying ways for the remainder of his life. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Shortly after the St. Petersburg Times announced Mr. Smith's death on its website, a reader posted a comment stating the following: A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead. |
I don't like this attitude much. I think there's plenty of room in this world for people who are content living a simple life with no particular work-related ambitions.
When I was in college, there was a man who lived near campus. Every day he would dress up in orange clothing and come to the square outside the campus book shop and play his piccolo. He lived simply off of the proceeds and enjoyed his life. Certainly he didn't earn much, but he had enough to get what he needed and wanted, and I saw a certain appeal in his lifestyle. |
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D.D.
Joined: 29 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 3:27 am Post subject: |
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Was the guy whop dressed in orange and played the piccolo a hare Krishna ?
Last edited by D.D. on Sun Oct 10, 2010 6:17 am; edited 1 time in total |
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RMNC
Joined: 21 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 3:38 am Post subject: |
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Warning: Condescending comments incoming.
Yeah, you can live like that and be happy, but why would you want to? I guess some people just don't care at a certain point. That's not living, it's just surviving. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:12 am Post subject: |
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| RMNC wrote: |
Yeah, you can live like that and be happy, but why would you want to?
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If you don't value material objects, then the real question becomes why wouldn't you? Assuming you can earn enough to live as you wish and put away enough to maintain said lifestyle after you stop working, why would you work in a more driven fashion?
| RMNC wrote: |
| I guess some people just don't care at a certain point. That's not living, it's just surviving. |
I don't think "living" and "focusing on acquiring material wealth" are synonymous. Even a homeless vagabond with no property of which to speak could be said to have lived well if in retrospect he'd have lived his life the same way. The content of our experiences matters far more. |
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RMNC
Joined: 21 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:21 am Post subject: |
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I guess you could consider me a glass half empty type of person, "greed is good"-esque, a hedonist, that kind of thing.
I think it's human nature to acquire the biggest piece of meat in the pack, and to try to abstain from that is not worth the happiness you could bring from putting in more effort to improve your situation. The sum of the parts being greater than the whole, what-have-you.
Conversely, since the value of material and monetary wealth is subjective from person to person, I ask you, why wouldn't you strive for the most possible? It makes as much sense for this guy to do nothing as it does for Donald Trump to keep trying to rake in millions. The difference is that we live in a society that has either moved past, or hasn't gotten to, the Star Trek universe where money doesn't exist and whatnot. Until we do, people like this guy are going to be looked down on, or at a disadvantage from the kind of safety that money, material and status bring you.
At least, that's just my opinion. |
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DaeguKid
Joined: 09 Dec 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:30 am Post subject: |
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A wise man once said, not quoting, that when you want to be a millionaire and it is all you are focused on, and when you get to that million, you are still not happy. Then the new goal becomes 2 million.
I personally believe that when one lets go of all possessions, you can find true happiness. You release all the wants.
Look at the folks in India who live by the train tracks and are piss poor. They smile, smile, smile. They do that because their dad was poor, and his father was poor and his father was poor. So they are content and choose to be happy. They don't worry or concern themselves with Visa, car and mortgage payments. Not a bad life is it?
The scum that posted that comment on the Tampa Bay paper must have a sad, dark, ugly soul. |
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Globutron
Joined: 13 Feb 2010
Location: England/Anyang
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 6:46 am Post subject: |
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| The difference is that we live in a society that has either moved past, or hasn't gotten to, the Star Trek universe where money doesn't exist and whatnot. |
I think you seem to be thinking to much about human nature, really. There are other factors that pull us away from some desires such as acquiring the biggest lump of meat - I won't go into detail just believe me.
There is another set of lines that highlights this - A man watches his father live each day like the last and he despised it and was determined to live like every day was his last. He did everything he dreamed of and more but he was not satisfied and asked if it was truly everything. Suddenly he realised the only thing he wanted was to be the one thing he spent his life avoiding - to be like his father.
10 points to anybody who knows the song I'm referring to. |
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RMNC
Joined: 21 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 7:56 am Post subject: |
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Globutron - Yeah, it's that really contrived one about the Dad not playing ball with his son. And until you can name something, anything that is more important to humans than acquiring material wealth that truly distracts us from our desires, I won't take your word on that.
DaeguKid - I highly doubt that poor people in India who have no money to eat wouldn't be happier with some money in their pocket and some food in their stomachs. They want a house, food, all the same things we all want. Not a single one of them wouldn't trade positions with you given the chance. It's not that they've given up on trying to achieve monetary means and they're perfectly content, it's just they know they're being photographed or filmed, have no other opportunities, and know that a smile is one of the few assets they DO have.
And I also bet you that anyone that has a million dollars is happy as hell and appreciates it like hell, considering the work it takes to make a million dollars. Lottery winners are the exception that proves the rule. I mean, really, do you see more unhappy people with no money, or unhappy people with millions? If you think that people with no money are happier than people who do have money, then you're crazy, delusional, an idiot, or a combination of two or more.
These kinds of things are like when people say "Oh man I wish I could live back in Victorian times, when people had culture and things were so mannered", forgetting that the majority of people were unhappy serfs and peasants, there was little indoor plumbing, showers, central heating, that stuff. But I'm getting off track.
If you think that the enlightened life of giving up all material wants is so great, why don't you do it? You say you believe that when you let go of possession that you can find true happiness, but you're using a computer, presumably working a job in Korea so you can afford to eat, buy internet access, watch a movie and drink soju on weekends, all that stuff. Kind of hypocritical, isn't it? |
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Globutron
Joined: 13 Feb 2010
Location: England/Anyang
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 8:06 am Post subject: |
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Globutron - Yeah, it's that really contrived one about the Dad not playing ball with his son. And until you can name something, anything that is more important to humans than acquiring material wealth that truly distracts us from our desires, I won't take your word on that.
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No, It's Octavarium by Dream Theater.
Something more important eh... How about... Knowledge. People have died in the process of getting immersed in the quest for knowledge. People dedicate and ruin their lives and go insane over it.
People quit their successful careers for it, drop their families and friends and so forth.
Satisfactory?
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| I highly doubt that poor people in India who have no money to eat wouldn't be happier with some money in their pocket and some food in their stomachs |
How about people who leave their content lives to live much less content lives for the satisfaction of helping others less fortunate. I knew a man once who worked in various impoverished countries fixing the computer systems in dams, upgrading them etc. No pay whatsoever for years, simply enough money given for food.
I'm not sure he'd trade that life for any of ours. Unfortunately he got a terminal illness and had to be given a temporary home for him to sit and die in. With internet, though. Then they found a cure and he went off to do his charity work again and that was the last I heard from him.
True story.
It's a little odd that you are so adamant on the idea that money=happiness. or material belongings = happiness.
Thousands of examples to counter it.
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| f you think that people with no money are happier than people who do have money, then you're crazy, delusional, an idiot, or a combination of two or more |
People in Papua new Guinea don't know what money is.
So tribes can never be happier than western civilisations?
So what if someone is being hypocritical? That isn't the point. that doesn't actually change ANYTHING about the topic.
I Wouldn't go out and live a life of no material because I am not prepared for it. I have debts to pay and I am already heavily in the system. Other people are not. It's an invalid point to say one is a hypocrite. In most cases, in fact. |
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CtotheB
Joined: 03 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 10:39 am Post subject: |
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| Globutron wrote: |
| Quote: |
Globutron - Yeah, it's that really contrived one about the Dad not playing ball with his son. And until you can name something, anything that is more important to humans than acquiring material wealth that truly distracts us from our desires, I won't take your word on that.
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No, It's Octavarium by Dream Theater.
Something more important eh... How about... Knowledge. People have died in the process of getting immersed in the quest for knowledge. People dedicate and ruin their lives and go insane over it.
People quit their successful careers for it, drop their families and friends and so forth.
Satisfactory?
| Quote: |
| I highly doubt that poor people in India who have no money to eat wouldn't be happier with some money in their pocket and some food in their stomachs |
How about people who leave their content lives to live much less content lives for the satisfaction of helping others less fortunate. I knew a man once who worked in various impoverished countries fixing the computer systems in dams, upgrading them etc. No pay whatsoever for years, simply enough money given for food.
I'm not sure he'd trade that life for any of ours. Unfortunately he got a terminal illness and had to be given a temporary home for him to sit and die in. With internet, though. Then they found a cure and he went off to do his charity work again and that was the last I heard from him.
True story.
It's a little odd that you are so adamant on the idea that money=happiness. or material belongings = happiness.
Thousands of examples to counter it.
| Quote: |
| f you think that people with no money are happier than people who do have money, then you're crazy, delusional, an idiot, or a combination of two or more |
People in Papua new Guinea don't know what money is.
So tribes can never be happier than western civilisations?
So what if someone is being hypocritical? That isn't the point. that doesn't actually change ANYTHING about the topic.
I Wouldn't go out and live a life of no material because I am not prepared for it. I have debts to pay and I am already heavily in the system. Other people are not. It's an invalid point to say one is a hypocrite. In most cases, in fact. |
But he's right; people in new guinea would switch their lives with an American millionaire gven the chance in an instant.
And they still have systems of trade, barter, possession, even dowries. As for knowledge, I highly doubt that anyone in this day and age, including the guy in the story, would trade their material possessions for... Knowledge.
A guy doing charity work is a noble cause for sure, but we can't all do charity workas a job. Someone has to do actual jobs, and we want compensation for them. We want to escape t easier situations by instinct. We can fight that instinct and f off to some foreign county to do charity work, but objectively it's making your life harder, which I believe as well goes against what it means to be human and to be able to strive for something better for yourself. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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| RMNC wrote: |
| I think it's human nature to acquire the biggest piece of meat in the pack ... |
Perhaps this to some degree describes many humans, but it demonstrably does not describe all of them. History is filled with examples of people who chose to forego the struggle for the "biggest piece of meat in the pack" in favor of pursuing a different ideal.
| RMNC wrote: |
| Conversely, since the value of material and monetary wealth is subjective from person to person, I ask you, why wouldn't you strive for the most possible? |
The acquisition of material wealth takes focus, time, and energy. It generates stress, and often it involves ethical compromise as well depending on your field. If one doesn't feel the wealth gained is worth the time, energy, stress, and compromises, then one clearly wouldn't endlessly pursue wealth. And that ignores all the cases of individuals for whom the active acquisition of wealth would actually run counter to another goal; for a Buddhist who genuinely desires Nirvana, for example, the endless pursuit of wealth would serve as an active hindrance with regards to that other goal. You and I might not share his goal, but I think we can understand it intellectually, and I see no reason we can't allow for such individuals.
| RMNC wrote: |
| Until we do, people like this guy are going to be looked down on... |
Not by me he's not.
| RMNC wrote: |
| ... or at a disadvantage from the kind of safety that money, material and status bring you. |
This is true; foregoing the acquisition of material wealth puts one at risk. Lots of things people consider worthwhile put one at risk, though, so I don't consider this all that damning. |
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