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Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

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Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

#51

Post by antisthenes »

richard_chase wrote: post #8

I think the new generation will be alright. From what I've seen, they seem to believe that maximizing their looks is the answer.

Calhoun's mouse utopia experiment is looking more and more real by the day.

> The "Beautiful Ones": Younger mice withdrew entirely from social interaction, spending all day grooming and eating alone without mating or fighting.

> Hyper-Aggression and Apathy: Dominant males attacked others randomly, females neglected or killed their young, and reproduction completely flatlined.

Remind you of anything?

Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

#52

Post by ksenzee »

EA-3167 wrote: post #17
bluefirebrand wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's true too I was honestly just talking about "people used to afford a house and family with two vacations per year on a single income, now people can't even afford a house on two incomes" which seems to be a common refrain nowadays I know a lot of my friends and peers believe they have worse standard of living than their parents did at the same age, and the data does seem to agree with them. Existence of sm…

While true a lot of subtlety is hidden in those seemingly simple comparisons. For example has the median/average home size grown since then? If so by how much? How about amenities that are expected in a modern home? In the 1950's and 1960's what did a vacation look like for a single-income family with kids back then? What does it look like now? If you look at the data what you see is that people have more, want more,…

Housing is not more expensive because people have granite countertops. If anything it's the other way around. The land houses sit on has grown exponentially in value regardless of the quality of the building itself. Take any modest US suburban house that's been around since the 70s, and check its value over time. Even if the house is still the same building, same square footage, its current value will be much more than its initial value in today's dollars. If you're paying $700k for a house that was worth half that in today's dollars a generation ago, you might as well spend the extra few thousand it takes to get the nice countertops; their value relative to the rest of the house has gone down considerably.

Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

#53

Post by ksenzee »

EA-3167 wrote: post #30
bluefirebrand wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example has the median/average home size grown since then Sure. Let's compare to the 90s. According to Google, New detached homes are 10-20% larger in square feet today than they were in the 90s. Also according to Google, new detached homes are 3.3x more expensive, inflation adjusted, than the 90s. Of course mortgage interest rates play a part here too, but that's a really bad starting point And that's just for…

I was around in the 1980's and people weren't buying a home and a yearly family vacation on a single income, that era was long gone. If you're talking about those "Good Old Days" then you're talking about the postwar economy that was decisively long gone by '80s.

They were buying a home and a yearly family vacation on two modest incomes, though. Try doing that now.

Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

#54

Post by cindyllm »

card_zero wrote: post #47
Noaidi wrote: post #25

As someone living with a lifelong serious melted illness, I say this guy can F off. Strictly blaming depression on sociological factors is demeaning to those people with mood disorders. What about diet? What about nutrition? What about EMF’s? What about Covid infections? This blow hard with his three points, always three points by the way, is minimizing depression, and all people with mental illness.

Melted illness, that sounds very serious. He sure loves his brain hemisphere lateralization, wasn't that stuff seriously questioned? Like found to be divided the opposite way around, or not at all. He's also a bore, which according to the trendy theory of the day means he is doing a public service by making us bored.

[dead]

Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

#55

Post by EA-3167 »

ksenzee wrote: post #52
EA-3167 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While true a lot of subtlety is hidden in those seemingly simple comparisons. For example has the median/average home size grown since then? If so by how much? How about amenities that are expected in a modern home? In the 1950's and 1960's what did a vacation look like for a single-income family with kids back then? What does it look like now? If you look at the data what you see is that people have more, want more,…

Housing is not more expensive because people have granite countertops. If anything it's the other way around. The land houses sit on has grown exponentially in value regardless of the quality of the building itself. Take any modest US suburban house that's been around since the 70s, and check its value over time. Even if the house is still the same building, same square footage, its current value will be much more th…

https://www.nahb.org/blog/2026/08/Median-Lot-Sizes-by-Region...

If you're buying a $700k house there are only a few parts of the country where your statement is true, and frankly much of that comes down to a few cities and metro areas. The idea that people buying a house in rural NC today and 30 years ago are somehow facing radically different (inflation adjusted) lot prices doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

But again, if you want to look at houses in the 1970's then you have to remember that the US population has risen by 150,000,000 since then... the land is the same size. The cities that everyone wants to live and work in are mostly the same with some changes in the Pacific coast of course. You're also competing with far more people who have relatively more money to spend, including a willingness to go into serious debt, to live their "dream".

Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

#56

Post by EA-3167 »

ksenzee wrote: post #53
EA-3167 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was around in the 1980's and people weren't buying a home and a yearly family vacation on a single income, that era was long gone. If you're talking about those "Good Old Days" then you're talking about the postwar economy that was decisively long gone by '80s.

They were buying a home and a yearly family vacation on two modest incomes, though. Try doing that now.

They might have been "buying" a home with a long-term mortgage, and by the 1980's you were seeing the rise of individual credit card debt as a way to finance a previously unobtainable lifestyle. The 1980's saw the first "cash back" card and rewards cards followed, along with a culture of assuming debt to consume.

What you saw in the 1980's ended much like it did in 2008, it wasn't sustainable and it went bust just as it would over and over and over since. BUT people want more, they want to pay less for it, and many more people want that. If you're a politician you don't win by fighting against that, you swim with the currents and find scapegoats to blame instead.

Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

#57

Post by bluefirebrand »

EA-3167 wrote: post #56
ksenzee wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were buying a home and a yearly family vacation on two modest incomes, though. Try doing that now.

They might have been "buying" a home with a long-term mortgage, and by the 1980's you were seeing the rise of individual credit card debt as a way to finance a previously unobtainable lifestyle. The 1980's saw the first "cash back" card and rewards cards followed, along with a culture of assuming debt to consume. What you saw in the 1980's ended much like it did in 2008, it wasn't sustainable and it went bust just as…

> They might have been "buying" a home with a long-term mortgage

Oh thanks for reminding me, people used to buy houses on 20 year mortgages now to make them remotely affordable they have to be 30-year mortgages

Good catch!

Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

#58

Post by EA-3167 »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #57
EA-3167 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might have been "buying" a home with a long-term mortgage, and by the 1980's you were seeing the rise of individual credit card debt as a way to finance a previously unobtainable lifestyle. The 1980's saw the first "cash back" card and rewards cards followed, along with a culture of assuming debt to consume. What you saw in the 1980's ended much like it did in 2008, it wasn't sustainable and it went bust just as…

> They might have been "buying" a home with a long-term mortgage Oh thanks for reminding me, people used to buy houses on 20 year mortgages now to make them remotely affordable they have to be 30-year mortgages Good catch!

I take it from the shift in tone that you understood my point, although you don't particularly care to discuss it. I get it, no one ever wants to hear that biggest changes have been:

More people

More money

More people with more money

More competition for something previously limited to far fewer people historically

Costs rise

Expectations rise

Debt rises

And now if you've been keeping track we're at the "people who can't afford delivery finance their Doordash with a short-term loan" stage of the game.

Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

#59

Post by unparagoned »

blueflow wrote: post #14

60 years ago you might have ended up in a psychiatric hospital without getting effective treatment, mental health issues were stigmatized and the incentive to seek out help was low. People used to just live a miserable life with their issues. Nowadays knowledge about mental health issues is widespread in the population, somewhat normalized and leading to people seeking help. I consider it realistic that depression di…

Depression is related to biological health of the brain. People are exercising less leading to worse biological health of the brain. So you’d expect depression to be increasing.

Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause

#60

Post by jemmyw »

VaderAi wrote: post #43

Turns out houses are getting smaller for most people,and less interest in gardening and outdoor activities, sitting around and playing on there phones all the time will create boredom. And without having goals in there life to keep them motivated is one of the key things to prevent depression. John kirwin also stated this in his book. Apart from people with chemical inbalance

Living space per person has tripled since the 1950s for Americans. House sizes have gone up and family sizes down.

I do notice that new houses seem to be built to maximize house size and leave little for the garden. I assume most people want that. Personally I've got a large garden, although it's a lot of work.

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