Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Great point Craig.

The truth is...

People will pay more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure.

I really disagree with this, but leave it for the "Marketing Fear or Joy" thread.

Where I`ll accept the argument would be with a slight modification: "In today`s world...." and so on.

We`re in a strange change-point of history, where anxiety and fear are the strong forces, and creation and joy are the weak force. But I don`t accept that people are designed that way. It only appears that way in our particular moment of history.

I appreciate you disagree with this. But it`s a fact...

For example...

A person will pay more to cure an illness than they will to stay healthy in the first place.

They will also pay more for a solution to a problem than a prevention for that same problem.

Can`t argue whether we`re wired that way or not.

But for me, the proof is in the pudding...or should that be in the profits?

Staying healthy isn`t the same as gaining pleasure. And that`s where I think all this discussion goes off the track. We`ve reached a time in history where the lack of pain is the same as the presence of joy.

I remember asking various people, "Are you happy?"

Some would say, "Well, I`m not UNhappy." Others would say, "I`m content." Somehow, they believed that their response was the same as saying they were happy. But the also "sensed" that there was something missing in the response.

I don`t have any numbers, but I wonder what the dollars would indicate if selling sex was legal? Would they match the dollars net-profits of the pharmaceutical industry? What about Viagra?

There`s no disagreement that people facing a crisis of pain and death will do whatever they can to get out of that crisis. I also agree that, generally speaking, most people take a non-critical status for granted.

But where I disagree is in the devaluation of joy and pleasure. Given two doors, behind one being pain; behind the other being pleasure, I think people would pay more to open the door to pleasure. They would certainly pay a lot to prevent the door of pain being opened, but that`s not an ordinary situation.

People don`t go through life expecting the door to pain being opened on a random basis. Otherwise, they would simply eliminate the door.

It`s that we live in a new phase of life, these days, where people DO expect random visitations of pain, with no control at all over the outcome. How did that come about? I think it`s the marketing of fear.