by Zwackus
Wed Apr 15th, 2009 at 06:47:34 AM EST
The results of a recent study show what some of us may have intuitively felt for some time now.
Cost of Living Now Outweighs Benefits - America's Finest News Source
ET's always been strong on Doom, but it seems like the gloom side is still alive and kicking.
"This is sobering news," said study director Jack Farness. "For the first time, we have statistical evidence of what we've suspected for the past 40 years: Life really isn't worth living."
Here I was, thinking this was a problem that I suffered from alone.
To arrive at their conclusions, study directors first identified the average yearly costs and benefits of life. Tangible benefits such as median income ($43,000) were weighed against such tangible costs as home-ownership ($18,000). Next, scientists assigned a financial value to intangibles such as finding inner peace ($15,000), establishing emotional closeness with family members ($3,000), and brief moments of joy ($5 each). Taken together, the study results indicate that "it is unwise to go on living."
"Since 1965, the cost-benefit ratio of American life has been approaching parity," Farness said. "While figures prior to that date show that life was worth living, there is some suspicion that the benefits cited were superficial and misreported."
Analyzed separately and as one, both the tangible and intangible factors suggest that life is a losing investment.
"Rising energy costs, increased prices on everyday goods and services, and the decreased value of the dollar have combined to drive the cost of living in this country to an all-time high," Farness said. "At the same time, an ever-increasing need for additional emotional-energy output, low rates of interest in one another, and the decreasing value of ourselves all greatly exceed our fleeting epiphanies."
We're all doomed!
