It was quite difficult for me to start this writing. It bothers me all the time, and I feel the urge to write about it despite the overwhelming apathy among people. The question is quite general and roughly I would formulate it like this:

What world does everyone of us want to live in?

Let me explain what I specifically have in mind. But, first, the axioms.

(1) Everyone has a drive for survival. For that, one needs food, water, home, health care in case of illness, and other basic resources.

(2) (Almost) everyone has a drive to take care of their children and dearest/closest people.

(3) None of us decides what psycho-physical characteristics they are born with. Unfortunately, not everyone is lucky enough to be born with high enough intellectual capacity, with healthy genes.

(4) None of us decides what family they are born in. Again, many of us are not lucky to be born in families which can provide for healthy and safe conditions for development of children, as well as access to quality education.

(5) None of us decides what environment and society they are born in. By chance, one may be born in any of these:

(a) countries where people massively get killed because of ongoing wars,
(b) countries where people massively die of hunger and illnesses; and wars too,
(c) countries in peace, but with limited freedom and various deep inequalities,
(d) economically developed countries with huge social and other inequalities,
(e) economically developed countries with minor social inequalities and fair opportunities.

Now, the key question is:

How am I supposed to satisfy (1) and (2) if I was not lucky in (3), (4) or (5)?

If I was lucky enough to be born with good intelligence and health, in a relatively healthy family, in a country of type 5(e) or 5(d), or even 5(c), my chances to satisfy (1) and (2) are relatively high. But, what if I was not?

Okay, let me make the point. I believe that an arbitrary person has the best chances for a decent life if they have the capacity to satisfy (1) and (2), on condition that all the other people in the community can also satisfy (1) and (2). Simply said, you can’t have a decent life for you and your family if a vast percentage of your co-citizens do not have opportunities for a decent life. So, for you to be happy, the others have to be happy as well.

Otherwise, the unhappy lives of your co-citizens will negatively impact your life. How, one might ask? There are a million ways. The simplest is — are you able to watch their misery without empathy? If not, you are a normal person and you feel their misery, which in turn makes you at least a bit less happy. If you can watch their suffering, and you do that with ease, then you are qualified for a sociopath/psychopath. What is a sociopath? A person with no empathy, compassion, conscience, remorse, shame, guilt, etc. Only 1-4% of the people are such. The vast majority of us are normal empathetic people.

The world I want to live in should be fair to all. One might say — “aren’t you a little too idealistic?! Have you gone out of your mind? How on earth are you going to make a society where all citizens have equal chances of living decent lives?”

The truth is — I don’t know. If I knew, I would certainly have proposed something. But, I’m not that smart and influential.

Anyway, I proposed a hypothesis that a personal happiness strongly depends on other people’s happiness. Do you think this hypothesis is correct? If not, why? What society do you want to live in?