Feeling bad when we have ‘had it’ good

Dear Mr Moore.

The only reason we have ever ‘had it’, is when we have done something that we consider was just not right. Human beings like to be right and they feel bad when they fail. For example the senior pleasure to which a human being may aspire is to successfully help another.

But help is all too often a dirty word and the difficulties in being successful at helping, have such a vast panoply, that help is far too often just not right. The fact is that living is fraught with difficulty and we are never taught correctly how to live.

I remember when I was a very small boy, asking my Sunday school teacher, whether religion had any ways of helping a small boy how to be good. “Yes” said my teacher “you had better be good, or else”.

Opponents of economic growth are those who prefer that we do not survive. It is only we, who flourish and prosper, that have the where-with-all to help. The chap who cannot help himself is dreaming if he thinks he can be a help to others.

As you say, the answer is, to improve education. The first and foremost improvement we need to make in education is to include the study of ethics into the study of economics. We need to get Economics right, in order to flourish and prosper and open the door to happiness.

The very first step on that road is to find a correct and scientific definition of money. A definition never to be found in a dictionary anywhere.

No wonder we all feel pretty bad having made lots of money. Without earning any money.

You could, Mr Moore if you so wished, do a great deal better than Margret Thatcher, who was, as you say, better than many.

Doctor Edward C Hamlyn MBChB

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