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Alex: People are able to forgo short term high for longer term wellbeing... Activities such as saving money etc... Don't underestimate how much people do those in their daily lives as well. While deliberative reasoning isn't something we undertake for every decision it seems to be a strategy that we employ when the decisions really matter. It isn't so very important to be whether I buy the cheapest jar of peanut butter, I know what kind I like, and I consider the saving to be negligible. When I am considering which university to attend, however, then I weigh pros and cons because that is what it takes to make it more likely to achieve my desire (of attending the place that is best for me in the following respects ____ because those are the things I desire / value).
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Oh no, no, Alex, my longwinded friend, it seems that now you too have fallen victim to MM’s circular hypothesis regarding our supposedly inexorable seeking of emotional payoff, wherein MM proclaims, in her so called “axiom,†that “people believe [only] what feels good to them - and use their brains to justify it.â€
Margaret will inform you that of course some people will forgo short term high for longer term well-being, b/c for some people, longer term well-being “feels good to them,†at least better, overall, than a “short term high,†and therefore, voilà , those people will use their brains to justify longer term well-being . . . and you’ll never convince her otherwise b/c everything she herself thinks and does is, using her stated belief, “the result of seeking that emotional payoff - that comes from satisfying [her] likes - and avoiding [her] dislikesâ€â€”and it seems that MM dislikes freewill, choice, moral responsibility.