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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?

#491

Post by CrimsonCape »

bombcar wrote: post #175
ipsento606 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> living paycheck to paycheck. This phrase is used so often, but I don't know how meaningful it is supposed to be A family might make $300,000 a year and be living "paycheck-to-paycheck" while also maxing out 401k contributions, paying a mortgage on a $2 million home, and paying $80,000 a year in private school tuition. Are we supposed to think that such a family is in worse financial shape than a family making $40,0…

It's somewhat of a mindset question and somewhat of a wealth question. Mr $300k may have zero months in an emergency account, but be stable in his job as a doctor and not worry about finding work - and may actually "feel poor" because he barely has any "fun money" to waste and feels he can't buy coffee in the morning. Mr $40k a year may have 6 months of expenses in the bank, saving half his income to FIRE, and know t…

I think about this guy occasionally:

https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/how-candice-m...

Happiness for him was somewhere between having zero dollars and being $33 million in debt. His influencer wife seems to have no humility, has moved to Miami where she can continue her partying lifestyle and going to yoga classes.

Its' both maddening and saddening. To what point does the ostentatious display of wealth serve if it leads to suicide? A few years of looking rich at the cost of the rest of life? We have no choice but to assume he was willing to make that trade-off. So it's angering to think a person would believe that.

On the other hand, suicide is the ultimatum when a man thinks his pleas are unanswered. Being surrounded by old-money socialites, I can imagine the feeling of having to leave the club being a fate worse than death. But how can an average guy have any sympathy for that, much less this guy's own feelings of himself.

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

#492

Post by anovikov »

snikeris wrote: post #424
01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just speculation: The houses got expensive because homeowners wanted housing to be an investment, so they voted for laws that make it harder to build or densify housing. Cars are expensive because the government puts tariffs on perfectly good imports to protect the American car companies. The American car companies produce garbage, and even the electric car companies like Tesla and Rivian are producing super-high-tec…

Houses got expensive because of usury (loans made for unproductive purposes). It destroys civilizations over time. That is why it was encoded into ancient religious traditions. Housing, education, and cars, all typically financed via loans, all exorbitantly expensive.

I'm not even sure where "houses got expensive" come from. Houses certainly did not increase in price (per unit of area) in last ~80 years, inflation adjusted - they tightly fluctuate around the same point. Housing affordability is in fact 4th best in the US among all countries in the world, and it got better in the last decades (although with fluctuations, and periods when it was getting cheaper were not pleasant as it meant millions of people going under).

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

#493

Post by asdfman123 »

card_zero wrote: post #486
asdfman123 wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or one can seek some supernatural mental delusions, an opiate for the people I'm very much an atheist and a positivist too. I rejected religion growing up. But we don't have to cede the concept of spirituality to organized religion. Spirituality is so much more than that. It's about purpose, connection, and what it means to be a human. You can practice spirituality by meditating at home, just sitting with your thou…

Using a long phrase like "Purpose, connection, and what it means to be a human" seems preferable to enabling supernatural belief to slink in through the gap in the now-ambiguous word "spirituality". I say leave it to Madame Blavatsky. Oh wait that's spiritualism . Same difference. Ooh, how about zeitgeist? I like that word. Then you'd still have spirits, but rational German ones.

I intentionally use the word because fellow atheists and positivists are too uncomfortable with it, and I believe the world needs more of it.

Yes, I'm pro-science and rational thought, but I'm increasingly thinking people like me have spent too long in left brain land and need to explore some of the deeper, subtle, and more intuitive parts of what it means to be a human, if that makes any sense.

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

#494

Post by hackable_sand »

newsoftheday wrote: post #87
ARandomerDude wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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."

You're understanding falls far short. Jesus saves us from the final end destruction, and helps us who believe on him through our daily lives. Some people get along fine without religion. What happens to them when the final destruction (from God, not man) gets here depends on whether these people continue to do it all on their own and choose to not believe; or whether they choose to let him in and believe. In either c…

No, that is the malformed belief chain of doomsday cultists.

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

#495

Post by BobbyJo »

Technological advancement is speeding up. When you don't have to worry about selling your labor, it is an increasingly powerful source of comfort. When you do have to sell your labor, it is an increasingly powerful source of insecurity.

I think a lot of the demographics that the article points to overlap strongly with technological diffusion, with social media exposure being a strong proxy.

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

#496

Post by shimman »

mbgerring wrote: post #161
lanthissa wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this isn't accurate. america has a wealth per adult of 551,350 germany has a wealth per adult of 256,180 if you exclude the top 10 highest wealth holders in each country its 543,385 vs 252,811. america's a rich country compared most other countries its also got huge wealth in equality because its top .001% is something that doesn't exist anywhere else

Now compare what you can get for that money in both countries, and you will inevitably discover that the German is wealthier in every way that matters.

Wait, you're telling me that I shouldn't have to work a $200k job in order to get 4 weeks of PTO?

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

#497

Post by jimbokun »

asdfman123 wrote: post #396
regularization wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But if you're single, isolated, on dating apps -- or maybe caught in an unfulfilling marriage commuting from the suburbs to a job you resent -- there often doesn't seem much point to your own existence. Everything has been stripped of its meaning. The scenario you paint is one where everything has been stripped of meaning. One option is to seek more meaningful work and social relationships, on an individual level,…

> Or one can seek some supernatural mental delusions, an opiate for the people I'm very much an atheist and a positivist too. I rejected religion growing up. But we don't have to cede the concept of spirituality to organized religion. Spirituality is so much more than that. It's about purpose, connection, and what it means to be a human. You can practice spirituality by meditating at home, just sitting with your thou…

It’s just that historically there haven’t been many successful examples of atheist communities with the kind of shared deep purpose, meaning and connection you describe.

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

#498

Post by r_lee »

cyclopeanutopia wrote: post #436
pelasaco wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah, it was, but now we have AI and there is no future for our kids, so it's even worse. what? We went through so many bad periods in our history..is it sarcasm?

No sarcasm, your reply is insulting. But stupidity, blindness and greed-driven techno-optimism displayed on this site got to a vomit-inducing level recently.

agreed.

I'm wondering how on earth are people supposed to provide for a family these days?

the techno optimism has been absolutely insane. celebrating that people won't have jobs anymore, that robots will be doing everything and that how the human species is just a stepping stone or something and if you resist you're a "specist" (famously said by Larry Page)

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

#499

Post by jppope »

peacebeard wrote: post #227
thewebguyd wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually sure COVID is a big part of it. It causes neurological changes that affect behavior. Look at road safety data since 2020, it strongly supports that something is wrong. There's been a massive increase in high risk behaviors, an increase in road rage, and a spike in traffic fatalities since COVID. If COVID brain damage affects motor vehicle operation, it wouldn't be so far fetched to say it negatively effe…

COVID is highly correlated with many other things that would increase dangerous behavior. For example, COVID saw an increase in alcohol use, which in turn would result in increases in road rage and traffic fatalities. I think so much was going on at the time that it's hard to decide what is a first degree effect versus a downstream effect, or even unrelated to COVID and more related to, say, political turmoil of the…

High risk behavior such as drinking, drug use are all down. they spiked then dropped like a rock especially in Gen Z

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

#500

Post by endemic »

nathan_compton wrote: post #313
asdfman123 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I agree. I think we're deep into a spiritual crisis, a crisis of meaning . A lot of people are blind to the trend because those aren't easy things to measure. But if you're single, isolated, on dating apps -- or maybe caught in an unfulfilling marriage commuting from the suburbs to a job you resent -- there often doesn't seem much point to your own existence. Everything has been stripped of its meaning. The spi…

I don't know, I'm a die hard nihilist and atheist and I'm married, have kids, friends, and think life is beautiful and generally ok. I don't see why people need to believe in imaginary stuff and I don't really see how it makes people happy.

Funny, I'm the exact opposite!
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