Modern men spent thousands and thousands of dollars to pursue happiness, especially entertainment. But there is a more economic way to achieve this.
In this world, there are things that are absolute and there are things that are relative. Feelings belong to the latter category, feelings are really relative.

Happiness is relative in a sense --- there are no fixed level of inputs required. It depends on the difference between reality and expectations. Most people only try to improve their reality, they don't realize that there is an economic way --- which is to lower one's expectations. Modern men might not like it,  but I reckon it is the better way. To achieve it, one has to learn humility. Counting one's blessings could also help, begin by thinking of the sufferings of so many people in the world. If that doesn't help, how about thinking of the sufferings in Hell??

 :applause:Thanks to the ultra liberals who educated me, and my peers whose parents were “cutting edge” liberals, I learned that lesson by the time I was 11-12 years old.  We were working class people in a professional community.  Even when Dad was promoted and received his PhD, we continued to live pretty much as before.  It didn’t take genius for me to recognize that I was happy with my family owning one car, a used black and white TV with rabbit ears, a handed down stereo console record player, and wearing hand me downs from my cousins or outfits sewn by my grandmother.  My peers who lived in the 1960s versions of McMansions, had the latest in everything material, were by and large, miserable.