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If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

derekthompson.org

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Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#981

Post by mancerayder »

nozzlegear wrote: post #336
mancerayder wrote: post #289

Our CEOs are happily, gleefully, boasting about how we're replaceable. That sort of stuff causes pitchforks to rise up in other countries. We Americans are hard-working sheep, and we deserve all the motivational Corpspeak we have to suffer through on LinkedIn posts. I've worked in this industry (tech) a very long time, and in every job I have peers that boast about off hours work. We get what we deserve.

> and we deserve all the motivational Corpspeak we have to suffer through on LinkedIn posts. > We get what we deserve. Why? You don't actually justify this reasoning in your post.

I did, but let me hammer home the point: when you try to restore balance in a corporate settings, your peers, not management, are the ones self-promoting how much they work.

I've worked in many environments where I came up against workaholic co-workers who pulled everyone down with them into weekend work and extra effort.

So yes, deserved.

This is not senior management versus us, it's us versus us, that's the American way.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#982

Post by justsomehnguy »

Gander5739 wrote: post #625
justsomehnguy wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in science studies that money absolutely makes you happy up to a certain point Perceived happines. It's hard to talk about happines with a person with an empty stomach. But I was much more happy when I was young and poor than I became a not poor but no longer a young one.

> Perceived hapiness Is there any other kind?

You can buy any bicycle[0] you want when you are rich but if you didn't had a bicycle in your childhood then you didn't had a bicycle in your childhood.

[0] or LEGO, Transformers action figure, whatever

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#983

Post by [deleted] »

pb7 wrote: post #862
jaarse wrote: post #823

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m Canadian, but frequently travel in the US. Over the past year I am also shocked at US prices. It used to be that everything in the US was about 25% cheaper (makes sense as their dollar is worth more). Lately I’ve noticed that everything is priced the same. And I mean exactly the same. On work trips over the past year I’ve had to buy tools at Home Depot, supplies at IKEA and Walmart, groceries, hotel, etc. I was i…

US USD$199: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M18-18V-Lithium-Ion-Br... Canada CAD$298: https://www.homedepot.ca/product/milwaukee-tool-m18-18-volt-... First drill I opened.

[deleted]

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#984

Post by jaarse »

pb7 wrote: post #862
jaarse wrote: post #823

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m Canadian, but frequently travel in the US. Over the past year I am also shocked at US prices. It used to be that everything in the US was about 25% cheaper (makes sense as their dollar is worth more). Lately I’ve noticed that everything is priced the same. And I mean exactly the same. On work trips over the past year I’ve had to buy tools at Home Depot, supplies at IKEA and Walmart, groceries, hotel, etc. I was i…

US USD$199: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M18-18V-Lithium-Ion-Br... Canada CAD$298: https://www.homedepot.ca/product/milwaukee-tool-m18-18-volt-... First drill I opened.

You can always find outliers.

Just glad I don’t have to pay American prices, that’s all.

But have fun continuing to tell yourselves that you’re doing so great.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#985

Post by nephihaha »

hirvi74 wrote: post #969
nephihaha wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lockdown, not "Covid". And that Covid lockdown was a little taste of the extreme form of top down collectivism. (Covid was around both before and after the lockdowns.) The USA got off lockdown lightly in the main. Continental Europe, Canada and Australia all went nuts with it. Especially the Northern Territory and State of Victoria.

People will complain that the government did too little or too much, but the key is that people will always complain.

They have the right to, and sometimes they will be justified in their complaints.

Some people will also obey whoever is in charge. History bears that out.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#986

Post by wildrhythms »

seanthemon wrote: post #592
decimalenough wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YMMV, but the fully remote workers I know (I manage a few and am married to one) seem very happy about it, largely because they get to spend a lot more time with their families than they otherwise would. They're anxious mostly because they're afraid they'll have to forcibly RTO.

I and my wife have been fully remote for over a decade, absolutely love it and I can't understand the whole going to office thing or people pushing for it.

Anecdotally, my manager is a rabid RTO advocate, he's a gen X man and messages our team sometimes at 1am, is working on the weekends, schedules early morning and late meetings that extend well past 5pm. He has kids that he never mentions. We don't work on anything mission critical whatsoever.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#987

Post by ghaff »

hattmall wrote: post #242
samarthr1 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! Having a house that is large enough to support whatever hobby(/ies) one takes up is an underappreciated aspect of suburban living. Growing up, (moderately wealthy) in a comparatively decent sized apartment, in a decent area, the biggest reason to not take up something like woodworking, or say working on a car, or for that matter gardening. So, as soon as I graduated, I moved out of the city, into a suburb. I…

Are you implying 30 minutes away by car is a short / good thing? That's adding an hour to anything you want to do. Assuming you work 8 hours and sleep 8 hours that's taking like 15% of your free time just in getting somewhere.

Or you just cook at home more--which isn't really a bad thing. I have tons of places within 10 or 15 minutes but don't really go out to eat much. Of course, if you really want to eat out all the time that's a different thing.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#989

Post by globular-toast »

dlivingston wrote: post #946
Der_Einzige wrote: post #859

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cat can be put back into the bag. Go see the plot for “the creator” or “dune” to see what doing that looks like.

I've seen the latter but I'm not sure I get the relevancy.

It's barely mentioned in the film iirc. The book is obviously far better. He's referring to the Butlerian Jihad.

Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?

#990

Post by fl4regun »

hunterpayne wrote: post #835
fl4regun wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how would you measure "happiness" if you were tasked to do so for a study?

Well, for one...if Ireland and Finland come out on top, you are doing it wrong. That should have been your first clue that the "study" is clearly doing something wrong. Also, if you don't know how easy it is to game a study...well then you have never conducted a study.

you didn't answer my question, and you didn't provide a methodology for measuring something like this in a study, so one has to ask, how do YOU know that ireland and finland shouldn't come out on top anyways?
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