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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/jul/08/skewer-myth-money-can-buy-happiness
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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Let’s skewer the myth that money can buy happiness | |
| (2 days later) | |
| Your excellent editorial “Britain’s mental health crisis: pills are not the only answer” (Comment) highlighted the significant negative impact of social circumstances, including employment opportunity and low wages. | Your excellent editorial “Britain’s mental health crisis: pills are not the only answer” (Comment) highlighted the significant negative impact of social circumstances, including employment opportunity and low wages. |
| Earlier this year, the Resolution Foundation reported an increasing divide between the rich and poor in Britain. To reflect upon emotional wellbeing in the round we should note the work of Professor Angus Deaton, awarded the Nobel prize for economics in 2015. In a co-authored paper in 2010, he noted that emotional wellbeing increases along with rising income, but only up to an annual income of $75,000 (£58,000). While austerity and poverty increase levels of distress for many, the escalating wealth in some areas of society would appear to make the recipients no happier. Surely this in itself makes a sufficient case to redress the balance to a certain degree?John Trounce (Dr)Hove | Earlier this year, the Resolution Foundation reported an increasing divide between the rich and poor in Britain. To reflect upon emotional wellbeing in the round we should note the work of Professor Angus Deaton, awarded the Nobel prize for economics in 2015. In a co-authored paper in 2010, he noted that emotional wellbeing increases along with rising income, but only up to an annual income of $75,000 (£58,000). While austerity and poverty increase levels of distress for many, the escalating wealth in some areas of society would appear to make the recipients no happier. Surely this in itself makes a sufficient case to redress the balance to a certain degree?John Trounce (Dr)Hove |
| I read your leader with interest and agree that this is a worrying trend, especially for young people. It is symptomatic of our country and the completely chaotic way it is being run in our name now. Not only does Theresa May feel “weak and wobbly”, but so do most of her citizens. Britain is fast being covered in a overwhelming black cloud of angst and uncertainty. | I read your leader with interest and agree that this is a worrying trend, especially for young people. It is symptomatic of our country and the completely chaotic way it is being run in our name now. Not only does Theresa May feel “weak and wobbly”, but so do most of her citizens. Britain is fast being covered in a overwhelming black cloud of angst and uncertainty. |
| Trust and stability have been rendered meaningless by a government that purports to care, but only on their very prescriptive terms. | Trust and stability have been rendered meaningless by a government that purports to care, but only on their very prescriptive terms. |
| Yes, it is beneficial that more and more people are coming forward for help and not suffering in silence. But at the heart of this systemic problem is the failure to halt this anxiety in its invidious tracks in our youngest and most vulnerable who look to the “grown-ups” for help and assistance, which shamefully appears to be rationed and in very short supply.Judith DanielsGreat Yarmouth | Yes, it is beneficial that more and more people are coming forward for help and not suffering in silence. But at the heart of this systemic problem is the failure to halt this anxiety in its invidious tracks in our youngest and most vulnerable who look to the “grown-ups” for help and assistance, which shamefully appears to be rationed and in very short supply.Judith DanielsGreat Yarmouth |
| The other side of nursing | The other side of nursing |
| I read with interest Ian Lebeau’s letter calling for flexibility in the language tests for overseas nurses. | I read with interest Ian Lebeau’s letter calling for flexibility in the language tests for overseas nurses. |
| There is little doubt we are in a crisis, but he has forgotten a few important things. Nursing is a profession of communication in all forms. While verbal skills and comprehension need to be of a high standard, so do written skills. Nurses have to document what they do and what needs to be done. If this is not clear, mistakes happen. If a nurse has to go to court it is their written documentation that is used as evidence. | There is little doubt we are in a crisis, but he has forgotten a few important things. Nursing is a profession of communication in all forms. While verbal skills and comprehension need to be of a high standard, so do written skills. Nurses have to document what they do and what needs to be done. If this is not clear, mistakes happen. If a nurse has to go to court it is their written documentation that is used as evidence. |
| Ensuring that nurses can write competently in English is a protection for the nurse, the patient and their colleagues. To suggest otherwise shows a lack of understanding of the complexities of the job.Carol PyeRomford, Essex | Ensuring that nurses can write competently in English is a protection for the nurse, the patient and their colleagues. To suggest otherwise shows a lack of understanding of the complexities of the job.Carol PyeRomford, Essex |
| Don’t deny dentists funds | Don’t deny dentists funds |
| You are right to focus on the impact of pay restraint on recruitment and retention (May must lift cap on public sector pay, Comment). However, in parts of the NHS primary care, where the line between “pay” and “investment” has blurred, this crisis takes on a further dimension. | You are right to focus on the impact of pay restraint on recruitment and retention (May must lift cap on public sector pay, Comment). However, in parts of the NHS primary care, where the line between “pay” and “investment” has blurred, this crisis takes on a further dimension. |
| NHS dentists have experienced a 35% fall in real income in the last decade and our practices don’t receive a penny in government investment. When we have to finance improvements out of our own pockets, this cap makes it impossible to provide the training, equipment and facilities our patients expect and deserve. | NHS dentists have experienced a 35% fall in real income in the last decade and our practices don’t receive a penny in government investment. When we have to finance improvements out of our own pockets, this cap makes it impossible to provide the training, equipment and facilities our patients expect and deserve. |
| As long as these supposedly independent review bodies have to operate within a government-imposed straitjacket on pay, this service, its patients and its workforce will suffer. Henrik Overgaard-NielsenChair, General Dental PracticeBritish Dental Association, London W1 | As long as these supposedly independent review bodies have to operate within a government-imposed straitjacket on pay, this service, its patients and its workforce will suffer. Henrik Overgaard-NielsenChair, General Dental PracticeBritish Dental Association, London W1 |
| Google v the EU? No contest | Google v the EU? No contest |
| So Antonio Garcia Marquez thinks the EU should get off Google’s back and allow it to do whatever it likes in the name of “innovation” (Europe is an insufferable brake on US tech innovation, Focus)? | So Antonio Garcia Marquez thinks the EU should get off Google’s back and allow it to do whatever it likes in the name of “innovation” (Europe is an insufferable brake on US tech innovation, Focus)? |
| One would have thought that as someone who designed credit derivatives for Goldman Sachs right up until 2008, he would have had the intelligence and first-hand experience to be aware of what can happen when deregulation has gone too far. Given the choice of a self-serving behemoth intent on taking over the world for the benefit of its shareholders and a European regulatory body looking after its people’s best interests, I’ll stick with the latter, if it’s all the same to you, Antonio.Marcus RespingerLondon W3 | One would have thought that as someone who designed credit derivatives for Goldman Sachs right up until 2008, he would have had the intelligence and first-hand experience to be aware of what can happen when deregulation has gone too far. Given the choice of a self-serving behemoth intent on taking over the world for the benefit of its shareholders and a European regulatory body looking after its people’s best interests, I’ll stick with the latter, if it’s all the same to you, Antonio.Marcus RespingerLondon W3 |
| Be careful what you wish for | Be careful what you wish for |
| William Keegan reminds us of Philip Hammond’s mantra that the British people did not vote for Brexit in order to become poorer (“Hard Brexit has been confounded by some harder realities”, Business). Presumably, most smokers do not take up their habit in order to die prematurely of lung cancer and few drunks have set out to succumb eventually to liver disease. But that is the way it often goes and decisions taken out of ignorance or misguided optimism do not necessarily produce good outcomes merely because these were what was expected.R RothschildLancaster | William Keegan reminds us of Philip Hammond’s mantra that the British people did not vote for Brexit in order to become poorer (“Hard Brexit has been confounded by some harder realities”, Business). Presumably, most smokers do not take up their habit in order to die prematurely of lung cancer and few drunks have set out to succumb eventually to liver disease. But that is the way it often goes and decisions taken out of ignorance or misguided optimism do not necessarily produce good outcomes merely because these were what was expected.R RothschildLancaster |
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