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

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

#951

Post by insane_dreamer »

It's hard when there's so little good news. I mean what good news has there been in the past 10 years? What progress has been made that has really improved our lives? Maybe I'm overly cynical but I can't think of anything.

The big step of "progress" has been the breakthrough in AI, which is amazing in itself, but that in practice is improving the lives of a tiny sliver of the population, and making everyone else's lives worse. It's not improving society in any meaningful way (but it is improving corporate profits and stock market returns -- I guess there's a bright spot for those lucky enough to have significant investments in the market).

Materially, in the past 10 years, things have gotten much much better for a very very small number of people, about the same for a segment of the population, and worse for most everyone else.

Even medically, the one area where we should be continuously getting better because of new discoveries, etc., we have gotten worse (worse health care outcomes, lower more people not getting healthcare due to affordability, poor nutrition because healthy food is more expensive, etc.). Even life expectancy, if you average over the past 10 years, is lower than the 10 years prior to that (due to COVID mostly).

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

#952

Post by array_key_first »

chasd00 wrote: post #413
mvdtnz wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if COVID revealed to Americans how toxic their individualistic culture is. For a long time it kind of seemed like individualism was working well for you but COVID was the first crisis since WW2 where the country was asked to pull in the same direction together and it really just fell apart. I'd be miderable too if I learned my entire worldview, and that of my countrymen, was dangerously wrong and there's no…

> where the country was asked to pull in the same direction together There was no asking, if the country was asked then the term "lockdown" wouldn't have been used. On the other hand, there were no soldiers on the street forcing everyone inside. People chose to do it and maybe that's where the social strife really comes from, people realized they just do what they're told by authority and they're not the free-thinkin…

Riots in the streets because you have to wear a piece of cloth on your mouth and stand slightly farther away from people?

I don't know how people are so delusional to think lockdown was a lockdown. Did we... did we have the same COVID?

I went to work every day, in person, at a restaurant. I served people every day, in person, at said restaurant. I went shopping at the grocery store. I went to the park, to the mall. These were all "essential jobs", somehow.

The only thing that changed is they put those little stickers on the ground telling people where to stand. Oh, and I wore a mask.

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

#953

Post by themanualstates »

blipvert wrote: post #272
linkregister wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree with your analysis of suburban Americans' lifestyles! Social isolation is endemic in suburbs. > eating bad manufactured food Things have changed dramatically in the last two decades. Food quality has never been better in suburban areas. Every Publix and Kroger has oat milk (I'm using this as a proxy for variety). Produce is fresher and longer-lasting. Consolidation and urbanization has left many rural…

You might use oat milk as a proxy for ultra-processed food. I used to live next door to a farm and I know how milking works - don’t ask me to milk an oat, though.

1. Grind whole oats into flour (to add surface area) 2. Soak the flour in water 3. Strain (remove the pulp)

Not ultra-processed; just ultra-marketed.

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

#954

Post by array_key_first »

Geee wrote: post #710
anon291 wrote: post #672

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean this is just silly. If anything, America was more communal than most countries during covid, as churches, clubs, gyms, continued to meet, even if in secret. Except for the extremists, no one really cared to be honest. If anything, it made me realize how uninterested in being governed Americans are, and how pervasive this attitude is. Lest you think it's all 'MAGA' types, consider my brother who lives on the Ce…

Individualism means voluntary cooperation. Collectivism is state-imposed forced cooperation. Decentralized vs. centralized. It's a common misconception that individualism means no cooperation; actually it means that each individual can choose who they want to cooperate with.

This isn't how most people would define individualism and collectivism, I think.

Individualism is the propensity to do whatever is best for the individual, even if it hurts the collective. Collectivism is the propensity to do what's best for the collective, even if it hurts the individual.

Wearing masks and social distancing helps the collective. But because Americans are highly individualistic, and doing so is ever so slightly less convenient than not doing so, many people decided not to wear masks or social distance.

Oftentimes what is best for the individual and what is best for the collective are one and the same. That is the only reason America works at all. COVID was not one of those times.

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

#955

Post by phtrivier »

tzs wrote: post #880
phtrivier wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to be fair, it allowed some of the old people to survive more than two years, so... Young people should react by voting in people who will defend them. Instead, they joined the elderly un voting for Trump. Go figure.

Boomers only slightly favored Trump in 2024. Young voters (Gen Z) went Harris by 10 points. People in the first ~1/2 of middle age (Millennials) slightly favored Harris. It was the second ~1/2 of middle age (Gen X) that were pro Trump, by 6 points. Boomers had the best turnout. 31% of eligible voters but 40% of actual voters. Gen X was 28% of eligible voters and 26% of actual voters. Millennials were also 28% of elig…

A group "slightly" favoring Harris, thanks to the electoral college, is a group that favors Trump :P

Also, gen z favored Haris by ONLY 10 points ? As in 55/45 ? Isn't the stat usually more on the order of 60/40 (if not 65/35) for this age group ?

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

#956

Post by [deleted] »

amluto wrote: post #778
traderj0e wrote: post #655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, a house is always affordable to someone , and it's not like all the single-family homes are owned by huge landlords renting out. Some areas have become more sought-after, so young adults there are finding that they can't afford to buy a house where they grew up.

> Yeah, a house is always affordable to someone It’s actually not true that a house is affordable to the person living in it. First, plenty of people own houses, paid-off even, but have little else in the way of income or assets, and, other than not wanting to move, they might be much better off if the home magically turned into cash. Second, taxes. In the US, in HCOL markets, selling your house may involve large amo…

[deleted]

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

#957

Post by themanualstates »

slopinthebag wrote: post #67
comrade1234 wrote: post #6

I 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…

It's similar in Canada as well, I think that is simply the outcome of massive countries. Not everyone can afford to live in the big cities, whereas in Europe it's much harder to even find a place to live that isn't either a big city or right next to one.

The stats say different. Canada has a higher urbanisation rate than Europe, defined as the percentage of the population that lives in cities.

If you look at sattelite images, a large part of Canada seems covered by native forests / mountains. That's different to EU where almost all land is divided in squares of varying colours, because a much larger part of nature was destroyed for agriculture.

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

#958

Post by anthonypasq »

array_key_first wrote: post #952
chasd00 wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> where the country was asked to pull in the same direction together There was no asking, if the country was asked then the term "lockdown" wouldn't have been used. On the other hand, there were no soldiers on the street forcing everyone inside. People chose to do it and maybe that's where the social strife really comes from, people realized they just do what they're told by authority and they're not the free-thinkin…

Riots in the streets because you have to wear a piece of cloth on your mouth and stand slightly farther away from people? I don't know how people are so delusional to think lockdown was a lockdown. Did we... did we have the same COVID? I went to work every day, in person, at a restaurant. I served people every day, in person, at said restaurant. I went shopping at the grocery store. I went to the park, to the mall. T…

part of the issue with Covid is that it was highly state dependent so everyone is talking past each other and accusing people of gaslighting and memory holing stuff.

if you lived in Texas, many people would agree with your assessment. I lived in Massachusetts and I can tell you that was not at all my experience. All communal venues including the beach???? were shut down. there was extreme social pressure to never step outside. I know this sounds like a made up story, but i literally had friends accuse me of killing their grandmother because I as a healthy 24 year old wanted to go to a concert AFTER vaccines were available.

If you lived in a primarily liberal culture, the authoritarianism, virtue signaling and hypocrisy were completely insane.

my little brother didnt get a senior year of highschool or freshman year of college, and yet people like you claim the only thing that happened was people didnt want to put a piece of cloth over their mouths. Its extremely disingenuous and i can tell you my brother has not been the same since covid.

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

#959

Post by tim333 »

johnsmith1840 wrote: post #480
tim333 wrote: post #305

As an occasional visitor to the US from England I was surprised by how expensive it's become. The US always used to seem cheaper than England I think largely because the government got out of the way so houses were cheap because you could build them, cars were cheap because you could import them, food was cheap because you could just grow stuff in huge fields whereas in England much of that was restricted. On my trip…

I don't think you've seen starving people if this is your opinion. I have never seen someone in america starving.

I wasn't really saying starving. Just hungry enough to come ask for food and eat it. I think the lady in question was likely drug addicted but even so usually even the addicts are fed.

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

#960

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #211

This discussion skips any consideration of the underlying premise that "self-reported happiness" is always significant Populations in different countries often have very different pyschologies and societal customs, including propensity or reluctance to be outspoken, to express "feelings", to complain, etc. Populations may differ in how they respond to questions about "happiness" For example, a country with relatively…

Perhaps there is more to being happy than just being rich (as in "If America is so rich ...")
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