Having to read about the crazy things Donald Trump is doing for 10 straight years hasn’t been good for my emotional health.
If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?
141–150 of 1001 posts
Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
That isn't a coherent argument; the latter does not support the former. The median American has a lot of money and disposable income compared to almost any other country.
America is in a weird situation where people have a lot of money in terms of the number and it converts well to other currencies. But it feels worthless within American borders. An American can get a very sad and bad sandwich for about $20 in a mid sized American city. They can get a full meal with fresh ingredients in most of the rest of the world for $10 (no tip either). Some places even under $5. An American can r…
The health insurance is the part that just is hard to relate to much of the world which is where the fear/sadness comes from. It is the undertone in any wealth discussion. So many people in the US see their family and friends get medically bankrupted for one reason or another and insurance being tied to employment makes everything awful.
The fact that you simply can't save enough to get medical care is foundationally depressing.
Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?
#143The article is smarter than the title makes it sound. He's not seriously proposing that being rich makes you happy. And he notes that there's a big drop around 2020 specifically , which long-term trends don't explain. Just to state the obvious: 2020 was the year of COVID, which played hell with peoples' social lives. And I think it's been pretty well-proven that happiness is largely driven by the strength and quality…
I suspect that for many people, the pounding outside is what mainly affects their happiness - if everything reported in the news is sunshine and happiness, they tend happier.
And if it's all doom and gloom and "go outside and you kill grandma" - are we surprised they get sad?
Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?
#144I feel like this is an easily answerable question, but I can see this because I grew up an atheist (and travel in those typically atheist/educated/professional circles) and have become much more aware/educated in/embracing of religion later in life myself. If you compare apples to apples - say my average atheist friend who is a director in a FAANG and also my religious friend who is also a director in the same FAANG.…
No time for sadness? HA! War and suffering continues unabated, "surprise"!
No, sadness becomes part and parcel of...everything! At least nowadays: New awesome toy! Kid got bad grade. Fun vacation last week! Friend's daughter died. PR riding bike! Dad needs help with a thing.
To your point: Life is rich with living. And yes, friends without kids, etc. talk about and buy toys. Cool! But/and no offense, gotta go now.
Life is rich and richly nuanced.
Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?
#145Hello. Inflation. Wage Contraction. Sure, money doesn't buy happiness. But you need some minimum. The Maslow's Pyramid. Food, Shelter.
Relatively well off people seem very unhappy now too, so that's not enough to explain what's going on.
Presumably in a general survey, there are a lot more poor, than rich. Hence they are the 1%. So 1% of the survey respondents are rich, and unhappy. Versus the 99% that are poor and unhappy.
The Rich, probably just need to get a grip, and stop complaining. "boo hoo, your life is so empty".
The Poor, probably just need security.
Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?
#146Very interesting article, and I can't help but compare with Canada. Canada has fallen from 5th in 2015 to 25th in 2025 on that same World Happiness Report, but if you break it down by age demographics, over 60 are still in the top 10, and under 25's are 71st . That is the largest demographic gap of every developed country. During that time, Canada's economy has been propped up by debt, high levels of immigration lead…
Boomers have ridden the wave of post-WWII success and now they're cashing in. Young people can't afford housing, sure, but even wealthier young people are affected by the spiritual rot beneath it. The future used to look bright, and now it doesn't. It doesn't matter if you're rich, poor, employed, unemployed, engaged in politics, or politically apathetic -- you can still feel it.
I recently realised that I can no longer imagine my future. I used to dream about the possibilities, things I would do and be, and I simply cannot do that anymore. It's just living day to day now. I truly have no expectations for the future. It's bleak and depressing and I'm slowly losing my will to live. But hey, the boomers' housing investments are going up! So thats great.
Damn, spiritual rot, such a good way to put it. I'm gonna steal that for sure.
Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?
#147I feel like wealthy americans live like poor Europeans - they live far outside the city in crowded suburbs, no amenities walking distance so they have to drive everywhere, having to commute an hour to their job, eating bad manufactured food... I'm American but moved to Europe years ago. It may be even better being poor here because at least you might live in a village and you'll have healthcare and your government wo…
> they live far outside the city in crowded suburbs
Suburbs more crowded than a city? Is this for real?
Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?
#148At the US hotel I stayed at they had a waffle machine so that you could eat waffles for breakfast. To make waffles you took a plastic cup to the "faucet" of the waffle machine, filled it with paste and then poured it into the waffle frying pan. Then you threw the cup away. Apparently, there was no need for a more efficient way. Americans seem to be very, very good at working very, very hard but not so good at efficiency.
Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?
#149Relentless striving without any kind of real meaning isn't healthy. Even people who aren't deeply Christian in the religious sense are still inherited of much of the values. I.E. people must prove their value via an extraordinary work ethic.
> people must prove their value via an extraordinary work ethic Ironically, this is the literal opposite of Christianity. Christianity in a nutshell is "Jesus saves people because we are incapable of saving ourselves."
Given where the world is headed, I'm starting to see the wisdom in that more and more.
Re: If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?
#150It's getting to the point where I search "K-shaped" and "Cohort" in these kinds of articles before I even read them. I'm not even saying these are why , exactly, but failure to wrestle with the intellectual effort of rejecting that as a hypothesis is a frustrating omission.
The article shows that the decrease in happiness is across the board, so even the wealthy cohort (the upper arm of the K-shaped chart) is unhappy.