Sat Sep 17, 2005 10:35 pm   Reply with quote      

We briefly discussed correlation between mental health and religion. What's your thought on the correlation between mental health and Buddhism?

Tue Nov 15, 2005 6:07 pm   Reply with quote      

I think Budhism makes folks more chilled out & less materialistic. Of all the poeple of various faiths that I've met, I've found the Budhists to be the least stressed-out.

What have you found?

Tue Nov 15, 2005 7:40 pm   Reply with quote      

I don't have any particular finding, though I know that Japan has the longest life expectancy and the most widely adapted religion in the country is Buddhism.

Thu Nov 17, 2005 9:18 pm   Reply with quote      

What do you think about them having the highest life expectancy? Do you think there are reasons due to lifestyle or is it just genetic?

Thu Nov 17, 2005 9:43 pm   Reply with quote      

I talked about this in this forum, but I'll describe reasons again. Also I want to add a couple of more new thoughts.

Developed countries have much higher life expectancy due to the following reasons:

1. Clean water's availability
2. Relatively clean air
3. Relatively accessible healthcare and Medicare (though healthcare and Medicare can cost much depending on where you live, and you may even be forced to be in debt in some cases, healthcare and Medicare are accessible)
4. More than sufficient amount of food

There is a huge gap between developing countries and developed countries because of reasons 1, 2, 3 and 4. Japan has one huge difference in addition. The difference between rich and poor in Japan is the smallest among developed countries. Surely, they have problems of inequality, but problems are much less severe. This is believed to make the most fundamental differences in society, and these contribute to the longest life expectancy in the world.

Sat Nov 19, 2005 2:56 pm   Reply with quote      

But don't they also work one of the longest working days in the developed world? Does this not add to stress though?

Sat Nov 19, 2005 10:38 pm   Reply with quote      

Yes, they work longer than Europeans and they work longer than Americans on average. However, with regard to stress, American work environment can be much stressful than that of Japanese. 1. Disparity between top management and average workers is huge. American CEO makes roughly 300 - 500 times as much as average worker. 2. Constant lay off; lay off is pretty common, and so many people I know got laid off quite a few times. 2.2. Not everyone is a full-time worker; many are hired as contract workers.

Capitalism makes people sick. This sounds rather odd, but there is a certain truth in the statement. If you ignore validity of social science completely, then the statement makes no sense, but if you acknowledge the validity of social science, you have to acknowledge the correlation between health and capitalism (that is not to say that I am against capitalism though).

Sun Nov 20, 2005 4:45 am   Reply with quote      

I agree. Don't you think it's about time we developed another system?

What kind of system would you like to see be developed?

Mon Nov 21, 2005 2:28 am   Reply with quote      

I'm not a philosopher or scholar, so I cannot say what kind of system would be far superior to any of existing systems and past systems, but I can say the followings. All existing systems have some problems; capitalism has number of serious problems. Communism has number of serious problems. Anarchism, though not experimented much, probably has some problems. However, all systems have some things to offer. Capitalism offers some things. Communism also. Socialism offers many good things.

Mon Nov 21, 2005 3:12 am   Reply with quote      

Fair play to you, but if you had to imagine living under a system where you think you'd be most happy, what kind of qualities would that system you imagined have?

Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:33 am   Reply with quote      

Hybrid of capitalism and socialism (communism) is probably more ideal than capitalism or socialism (communism). I believe that providing necessities to everyone in the society is critical. Necessities include healthcare, Medicare, welfare, child support and all. Some argue that healthcare is not a bare necessity, but the society essentially becomes a representation of social Darwinism without it. There are also other reasons why something like healthcare needs to be provided to everyone. At the same time do I believe that for-profit organizations, businesses, drive innovation, and they do benefit the society in many cases; there are things that should be not traded, but it's healthy to trade many things and embrace free market. I'm not a big proponent of Anarchism; though I strongly believe that any state represents some kind of power structure and it is usually a violent one, I don't think it realistic to envision a sustainable society without the presence of state/government.

Mon Nov 28, 2005 7:59 pm   Reply with quote      

Do you know of any country that's practicing this type of government? Which government, if you could choose to live in any country, would you find to be closest to what you'd like to see?

Mon Nov 28, 2005 8:38 pm   Reply with quote      

Tough to find the closet, but Canada seems to be doing a pretty good job. They have universal healthcare, and also their taxation is better adjusted than many countries. More specifically, those who have income above a certain level have higher tax rate.

A lot of people criticize universal healthcare, and one of the main complains is that they are so slow to handle many operations like knee surgery. I'm sure that their complains are legitimate, but their over all health has improved pretty significantly if you look at the average life expectancy.