Want to Be Happy? Buy More Takeout and Hire a Maid, Study Suggests
That article views life almost the opposite as I do.<p>1. I have long been inspired by Gandhi's having cleaned toilets in his ashram and he seems to have accomplished a fair amount of meaningful things. Monks garden and clean things in part to increase self-awareness and inner tranquility. The structure adds to my life, not detracts.<p>2. Happiness isn't "out there." It's "in here." Same with freedom. I suppose I could be happy and feel free either way -- doing my chores or outsourcing them, but doing them seems simpler.<p>3. Actually, the amount of garbage takeout creates is unconscionable to me. I couldn't live with myself filling landfills at that rate.<p>4. My home cooked food tastes better, is more convenient, costs less, is healthier, and is better in every way for me than takeout. The problem that takeout solves isn't time. It's ignorance of how to source fresh fruits and vegetables and to prepare them. Solving that problem improved my life more than take out ever could.<p>5. I incorporate cleaning my apartment into my workout routine, sweeping and mopping between sets. It doesn't cost extra time.<p>I feel the article misses the point of what creates happiness and freedom, but to each his or her own.