Exciting news! Roland Paulsen's book "Why We Worry," which we discuss in this video, is now available in English-and even better, it's OPEN ACCESS, so you can read it for free! This book has deeply influenced my thinking, and I highly recommend giving it a read. You find it here: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003514930/worry-roland-paulsen
I'd say both @stephen.macleod and @marianhunt8899 are right. If you have what should be enough by any sensible definition, then you need to recognize that. If you don't have enough, then you're in the situation Marian Hunt talks about.
Life has become unreasonably complicated . Having been very ambitious as a young person , I can say doing that with kids is impossible with out ruining the close bonds of friends and family .Money seems to drive every thought and every decision .Survival is taking over all priorities . We all are mostly working just to sleep and do it again .
I think there are two things that are happening, since were rich we now go to depression and meaning because we have fixed the issues that can be fixed, but at the same time there are many bad things happening like cost of living increase driven by corruption due to stuff like lobying, gerrymandering, wars good for the mic. Also technology is being adopted not because of happiness, but because what the rich people can get, SNS usage increases loneliness.
Money has absolute no power except for the greed of those who have less. So long as people stupidly rush to have more money than they need, billionaires will still control the world
Financial security is liberty. The wealth has been redistributed upward since the '70s. Making rich people richer at everyone else's expense is not making the country better, it's causing more harm, death, and insanity.
The amounts of deaths has steadily decreased since the 70s though - at all time lows as we are right now. As well as the standard of living has risen a lot since then. People just love to cry a lot.
@@MsFallenPrime Since the 70s the amount of suicides has risen, the cost of living has risen, inflation has risen etc. Therefore, although the amount of deaths has decreased - the quality of life has decreased as well. This signifies people indeed have a reason to “cry”. Your closing statement clearly comes from a place of ignorance
@@ChiseledJay the thing is wages have increased a lot more than inflation has - thus that is invalid. The suicide mostly is a white male thing however, with 2x the rate over blacks . THough suicide rates are as high as in the 1950s right now. The suicide rates are nothing extreme, but alarming at least and something should be done about it.
@@MsFallenPrime You’re incorrect. Increasing wages does not counteract inflation. An example - by raising wages, inflation increases simultaneously by companies raising prices. Hence, the opposite occurs. Additionally, in 1985 the average home price was 4.4x the average income, in 2024 it has skyrocketed up to almost 50% at 7.0x the average income.
One work-related factor that has not been addressed is how much our lives revolve around work and career and how other aspects that contribute to a healthy life are left aside. Sustaining a high standard of living is expensive, and to pay this price we need to dedicate ourselves from a very early age to studying in an increasingly competitive way to enter an extremely demanding work environment, along the way things like family, friends, relationships, meaningful leisure, and mental health are left aside as secondary aspects of a person's life.
Unequal poor countries is more depressed...poor people too. No meanefull jobs and friends available...is a point. Now we need work in these factors...the world is better but we cry more and create less then back then.
Because it does not matter if the country's wealth grows if the 'wealth growth' comes from 8 billionaires - because then the reality is that the rest of the country suffers.
@@marcus.H General lifespan does not define quality of life, as psychological issues and chronic issues plague the masses in the US. Yes, you’ll stay alive but with hundreds of thousands in medical debt, anxiety and depression tagged along; Also, we arguably have a lower lifespan than at least 40 other countries.yet a higher wealth growth, ain’t that odd? Cars for everyone ? Yeah the vast majority of the new ones stay on the lot, because the vast majority of people are unable to afford them!! Even used cars from 2016 are around $15k. That is an 8 year old car; you are out of your mind if you think anyone is trying to pay $15k for that. As for education, that’s a joke right? We have been in an enrollment rate decline, and it’s bad compared to other countries, this is expected to continue. Again people are straight up refusing to go into insane debt, because they realize they lose more than they are gaining. We are not winning, we are losing and at a rapid pace.
There are many more metrics that show that an average person has a better life now than a couple of generations ago. The life expectancy increase isn’t driven by billionaires living for thousands years, at least not yet :-)
I'm a native of the West who has now spent more than half my life in developing countries. Where I've lived, without exception, family and community is stronger than in the "prosperous west". Individualism, the cornerstone of Western Culture, never takes precedence over the group. It must make concessions for social harmony and the wellbeing of the family and community. And people are happier. Then I turn on UA-cam and watch modern-day Western intellectuals praise the outstanding tenets of Western Culture, drawing upon financial prosperity as indicative the Western model's superiority. Populations decline, psychological wellbeing declines, environmental health declines, and the West opines about why this is happening, but rarely addresses the elephant in the room. From my perspective it's obvious. We are evolved to work together and to look out for each other. The sophistication of our contemporary economies doesn't change millions of years of evolution.
This. I am an Asian living in the west. Jesus, people here are are so individualistic and so miserable and they can't seem to understand that it's because you keep downplaying the importance of real community. Im just happy because I get to benefit from the economical advantages of living in the west, and also understand that it is connection with other people that actually makes me happy and live a meaningful life. I have my family here with me, and my neighbor share the same values too so I got lucky like that. I can't say the same for my peers here.
Yeah, people are becoming more selfish by the day. They rather let other people suffer cause "fReEDoM". The happiest western countries are scandinavian with great social safety nets and a sense of community. But in other countries they will yell "Socialism" at that...
Its a balance, west is now too individualistic. Other cultures mostly so family orientated...ive met foreign couples with kids who literally cannot even talk to each other other than "get the baby nappy/milk"...yes even the wife ! All eyes, feelings to kid. Balance is key !!
I would say that for good families, prioritizing the family/community over the individual for sure makes one happier, as I have witnessed in some friends. I'm Asian. In my family, where we value the elderly more, and the elderly are traumatized from childhood, it becomes dysfunctional. We do the gathering like other families. We all pretend we are happy to see each other. We try to keep the elderly happy. No one mentions anything about the dysfunctions, and all the misunderstandings / contempts for each other just build up over the years, never discussed or resolved.
Think of money as rights and you will see immediately notice why happiness only increases within a range of equality. Astronomical wealth/rights means master and slaves.
@@behie And then rephrase it because money just not "is" ... its no natural phenomenon. We MAKE money. We as humans. We construct it. We define it. We create it. So... we CREATED money to be freedom. And everything we construct... we can change!
@@acz88 what I mean is working class people get scraps in comparison to what the ceo or capitalistic elites get most of the share of money that working class people worked for. Jobless people are broke.
@@acz88 elon musk the guy who was born with money from an emerald mine that used slave labor during apartheid south africa was hardworking, not the black people who were forced to do heavy labor to make his dad rich.
These videos are just criminally underrated in so many ways from the content, to the cinematic feel, to the top class editing and graphics on screen. You have many skills I hope you are managing to use them to their full potential
You approached this topic from the best perspective that I have ever seen. Basic Living should not be this difficult & challenging to afford here in the US. (I love my country) but It feels like no matter what we do, it doesn't matter, you'll barely be able to afford your rent, you feel worthless, it's getting so out of control. ~Serious question: HOW has our country been allowed to get THIS bad? And Nothing is being done about it. It isn't being talked about or addressed as a crucial issue that needs to be addressed right away within our society. Perpetual growth is impossible. Yet our country acts like continual growth is completely possible and they basically treat profit growth as a requirement. There is no way anything can function like this. 85% of the population cannot afford Rent. It also affects small town businesses due to the rent for their stores is also completely unaffordable. Our country pretty much requires everybody to obtain ever increasing income options. Just to keep up with affording basic rent. Well it's completely impossible. It's not possible that everybody can be that wealthy. So lots of store fronts are becoming vacant. Average people cannot afford basic rent. There is absolutely no help for our citizens who are now stuck in poverty.. (and worst of all, we have to wake up everyday and see that our country is completely ignoring that any of this is happening. The media just acts like none of this is going on. They just continue to show us clips on the news and statistics in the media about "How much our economy is thriving")
Australia 🇦🇺 too and yet the highest number of homeless are over 55 women, but many many more from all walks of life. All our community services are being stripped, education, healthcare, unaffordable rents(if you can find one) wage freezes lasting decades and on and on the list goes... Depression can arise from living in survival mode constantly and no matter how much more work you do, you know you are still going backwards. I also believe that for many it's not about wanting more, it's about the rich and corporations paying their fair share of taxes!
Our economic paradigm is obsolete, and no one in the media is talking about it- except for PBS on very rare occassions. Everything changed for the worse during the Reagan administration and all the problems we're facing began there. The changes they made to the tax code shifted the tax burden from the rich to the middle class. Result- the middle class was decimated. Corporate philosophy took an Ayn Randian turn and sociopathy became a virtue in CEO behavior. Schools quit teaching civics. The fairness dictrine was ended. Newsrooms were forced to become "for profit" and their duty to inform the public rescinded.
Yes, we are getting more wealthier worldwide. Many 3rd world countries are starting to get more into 2nd world due to adaptation to the 1st world. However, inequality is also on the rise due to that.
@@DipayanPyne94 It's not that we are getting poorer just cause economics. It's that we are more indidualistic compared to those few people who get richer which translates each person on their own, having less. The most wealthiest people are the ones who are within families that look after eachother and make sure they make the right investments.
I think that the problem is: The wealthier your surrounding get, the more you have to hustle to keep up, otherwise you won’t be able to afford anything anymore. If all would collectively decide to chill out more and salaries would be more equal, so many problems would be fixed. But I guess the nature of humans clashes with this thought.
almost like there are different economic models that don't require profit margins to go up in order to achieve instability. plus, there's not such a thing as "nature of humans", humanity's nature changes with the environment, if the grind is all we know, we respect the grind, but the world doesn't need to be this way
Happiness comes from having the perspective that things are improving. For instance, after getting over a cold you might feel very happy to be able to breathe easily through your nose. If you were not sick previously, this won’t put a smile on your face. If one is homeless, but then gets a nice apartment, they will be happy to have shelter. A recently divorced Dad forced to move into a similar apartment from a fancy pants home might feel terribly sad to have live in such a place…
Very interesting!! This is some high quality, high value stuff! The seven explanations are brilliant, very well researched, *and* rendered/delivered. I'm very glad I just discovered your channel; I subscribed, barely two minutes into the video! The explanations discussed here, gave me an idea; Put together/in correlation, they made me see an eightth, possible explanation...: That maybe, the very lack of "hardship", and focus on greater economic & societal "advancement" (i.e.: further eradicating hardship, in profit of bolstering general "comfort" & "safety") in the "first world"/developed nations, could be cocooning us into purposeless, isolating, overprotective, "bubbles", effectively rendering us similar to overprotected, inexperienced & fearful, highly reactive children...feeling evermore "alone", helpless & incapacitated, in the face of an ever-increasing, global wall of "threats" - thanks to the media... Whereas, the general state of life in developing nations, with its higher incidence of hardship, lesser economic disparity, greater reliance on human connections, & lesser focus/availability, or relevance of "global media horrors" - seemingly closer/more akin to an "older" way of life -, may, in fact, render the people, generally more "used to", desensitized, & also feeling more *able* to deal with the kind of lives they face... I mean; to me, the differences seem to indicate, that the greater incidence of imminent risks to one's life would not only, likely, plant one firmly "in the now" (mentally & emotionnally), but this might also set one "on a par" with some of the more dramatic global news - making it that much *less* shocking -, as well as, finally, offering one the proverbial "backbone" of greater social interconnectivity, to better "weather the storms"/ills and issues, that befall said populations... Effectively turning them into much more "now-focused", less reactive, & generally more "able-feeling" people - which is funny, because, as I'm typing this, I feel like calling them "adults" -...no? Just for clarification; I do mean, just as in the video, on a global scale, as a "macro-view" of global, societal trends. ... Am I the only one to see the possibility of that currently playing out, in our world? Or am I just possibly, a bit *too* critical, lol?!😅🤦🏻♀️
Thanks for you comment! Maybe you have a point. Do you agree with Steven Pinker when he writes that: "a modicum of anxiety may be the price we pay for the uncertainty of freedom."?
Yes l can see your point, however l also believe that while workers are treated as expendables, not valued and underpaid whilst the owners of these corporations are making really big profits, paying CEO's obscene wages and golden handshakes... for many times decreasing the workforce eg overheads, never showing any loyalty to those they demand it from... that argument is only a symptom of a much bigger problem😢
In my personal case I feel this way just because of my work and working in general. I work 8 hours a day and I am so overloaded at work that when I come back home I can't do anything meaningful at all. I think I could deal with a job that didn't make any meaningful impact on anything if I could come back home and invest my energy into something that I love and find meaningful. I can't. I waste my time at work for the money that don't let me have any fulfilling life and the overload wastes my time after work too. I feel like everyone is trying to save money on everything to have a bit more for themselves driving everyone else around crazy. And I work in Finland where the working conditions are one of the best in the world. I can't imagine what people go through in less developed countries. This year I spent 2 month in total being on a sick leave because of depression and I feel like I may need the third one.
@@TheMarketExit 🙏 I work in the healthcare but the experience isn't limited to the field imho. It's mostly always been like this no matter what the job title was. People around me feel the same way and I wonder what's wrong with the system. Thanks for your video, it helped to put some things into perspective.
Why don't you have kids? Have a wife or husband that you pay for them to be with your kids. Teach them about life make the world a bit more like you.. a bit better
@@johney3734 I can't understand if it's irony or not, in case it's not I don't think this world deserves to be better nor do I want to waste any energy on improving something from which I get nothing but more problems, I don't support this always pointless self sacrifice for the sake of the greater good. Also kids are alive beings and I don't want to use them as tools to achieve any goal, this is what got me here and I refuse to repeat this evil act. It's been 30 years of my life and I absolutely haven't seen any good reason to bring anyone here to put them through this meat grinder.
If working is the reason for unhappiness, even tho work has always been a thing, it sounds like the answer would be automation combined with UBI. But even then I wonder how fulfilled people will feel not having an empowering purpose The human psyche is full of contradictions and complications
Happiness? I have understood what causes it, but I never ever hear anyone else ever mention it. Which surprises me. Happiness and satisfaction is the psychological reward we get when we act in accordance with our human instincts. When we live a natural life. Just as dogs feel happy to be among others dogs, playing, sniffing each other, mating, humans also have these same needs. Friends, family, a life partner, children, releases seratonine in the brain. But fewer and fewer people get to satisfy these basic human needs today compared to before when the west were poor, and people lived most of their lives in the same village they were born in (today we all live like nomads, moving and changing social settings all through our lives, losing friends along the way). Wealth does not bring us friends, love, family or children. The more unnatural a society and culture becomes, the less happiness and satisfaction people will feel. Technology does not increase the amounts of friends or the chance of creating a family or have children, quite the contrary.
I disagree I think technology can help us become better, the problem is the big companies want to make more profits so they create products like SNS (Facebook) or the badly planed suburbs that make people less happy instead of more happy.
Well, partners and friends can also make you sick if they are not the right ones. Besides that, also the reaching of a goal or finding a solution to a problem or simply finally understanding something can provide you with endorphines and make you happy. And for that you sometimes need to be alone. We need people around us who satisfy both our intincts and our individual needs. And that may be the greater problem in terms of finding. And sometimes we want to be alone and undisturbed to be completely ourselves and not having to satisfy the needs of others. It should be a suitable compromise. We are no dogs, after all.
Such an egregious omission of the significant change, over the last 60 years, in what we ate and its strong association with the decline in physical and mental health over that same period.
Thank you for a very nice video! Moving to Sweden from post soviet country, one of my cultural shock was how much everyone speaks about importance of gdp and economic growth, while there is no developed things for ordinary people. I mean, why do I care that Sweden is very rich, while I even can not buy food after 23.00 or order it to my place since delivery only exists in the city center. Banks are just a joke. Such things are just ridiculous. I think that one of the philosophical reasons is that people are crazy abut being exceptional and ambitious. I believe that we need to think and care more about each other.
Thanks for your comment. I know, the more you think about it, the weirder you realize it is that we obsess so much over GDP and economic growth. You are right, we need to think and care more about each other. What would it take for that to happen?
@@TheMarketExit Teach empathy ? As a MD I took courses on communication and I have the feeling that these kind of softskills can be enhanced. Same as physical performance, we are not born the same but almost everyone can work on upgrading these skills.
A logarithmic transformation or logit function is not a statistical "trick." It is in fact very common and for problems that lie in a range from 0 to 1 it actually makes a lot of sense. Transformations are not tricks; not all relationships are linear. Another thing that i noticed was that there was a lot of variance in the graphs which suggests that whatever the relationship it is quite weak at all income levels. Also, while I do not think it is a problem in this case, a very common trap people fall into is looking at two things increasing or decreasing over time and immediately assuming a relationship. Regardless, still a great video and I think you still get a lot of things right.
Great comment. I also think is quite misleading to say the log transformation is a "trick". In this case happiness is capped at 10 so the log transformation makes sense.
I think it's particularly pernicious in this case because we're talking about a book marketed towards a general audience, not a journal article. I don't think most people reading this book are going to check for things like this, or even know what a logarithmic scale means.
Thanks for your comment! I do agree with you, in general. But I stand by calling this particular use of log scale a "trick", here's why: Using a logarithmic scale for comparing wealth across countries significantly underrepresents the vast disparities in wealth and this method becomes particularly misleading when presented to general audiences who may not realize the scale is compressed. As a result, the substantial economic differences, especially at the extreme ends of the wealth spectrum, seem less severe than they are in reality. I do recognize the value of log transformations in various statistical analyses, but I don't think it's appropriate in the case of wealth comparison. We need to be mindful what effects the choices of statistical representations may have for public perceptions. For instance, during the pandemic, one could argue that using logarithmic scales to visualize the spread of the virus would have been appropriate. However, most media outlets refrained from this approach. The reason is that logarithmic scales, which are not commonly understood by the general public, could have conveyed a misleading impression of the virus's rate of spread.
@@TheMarketExitIt seems to me that the logaritmic scale is especially appropriate for wealth. If you use a linear scale, than Bill Gates would be just as happy if he finds a thousand euros as I would be. A logaritmic scale would mean that I and Bill Gates would both be just as happy with a 10% increase in wealth, which seems far more reasonable.
@@MarijnMan I hear you. But my take is exactly the same, but from another angle. Just because Bill Gates wouldn't be excited about a 1,000 EUR bill, the overwhelming vast majority of the world would be extremely excited for that bill. A logarithmic scale hides how much good the excess wealth could do for the ones who have less. I'd be happy to hear what you think of that view. Cheers!
I believe a big part of this is inequality, exposure and self comparison, which are all basically the same thing. As a person who lives in a 3rd world country, as it's called, I see that those who don't have Internet social medias are happier, those who don't live in the capital city (those who can't normally see the mansions and the slums) are happier and those who, even though they know inequality exists, they don't really feel/see it around them (like me) are happier. It's not about the existence of inequality, but that if you feel it or not. A rich society with less bragging is much happier than a rich one with more bragging/luxury. That's actually one of the reasons I support not taxing wealth, but taxing luxury and unutilized wealths
Your videos are an embodiment of production excellence and I'm truly astonished that this channel hasn't reached a much wider audience. I much prefer this to Johnny Harris. Keep up the good work!
Wow, thank you! That's extremely kind. If you want to, you can help me out by sharing my videos with your friends, colleagues etc. :) I'm uploading a new essay very very soon!
10:11 To what extent the dynamics in statistics about mental health problems is due to more people being diagnosed with depression etc. as we get richer? I totally share your general assumption and the reason behind making this video, however in some cases it is problematic to clearly say what is the real process behind the statistical image. Just think about autism or ADHD - both are very strongly detremined by neorology and genetics. For this reason the number of people with these predicaments is rather stable. You see a strong rise in number of diagnosis because we started paying more attention to these issues.
I fucking hate the lie that everything is getting better. I felt so fucking gaslighted by it for such a long time, until I've seen it debunked with actual, honest data. And I fucking hate Pinker.
I agree with your initial point. Relating advancements/growth to overall human happiness in a confided observation. Maslow's Hierarchy in Needs is much closer to the human prediciment. AKA deny a generation of home ownership, retirement, affordable family and expect they will willingly participate and somehow be happy is delusional. The other observations are interesting but otherwise flubber.
It is getting better just not for westerners and especially America. Africa is no longer a starving warzone for the most part and Asia is growing or already industrialized
i feel its because when you have very little , and then you have some , you feel grateful but when you have enough and decide to strive for more .... the mindset is no longer gratefulness
This video speaks volumes. I recognize the loneliness a lot among people I met and I often go out just to remove technology from my life so I can connect with people gow I used to as a child and teen. It is so hard finding a valuable friendship these days. Much might be technology but it might be economy inequality and such as well. Good video!
Another fantastic presentation (of the two that I've seen), thank you, Andres. I remember that Frans de Waal, some years ago, said that, as a general rule, whilst most people in his native Holland are atheist, there is a distinct difference between former-Catholics and former-Protestants, in that ex-Protestants were invariably less happy and more bitter. Given that Protestantism and Capitalism have become inextricably linked, with a strong through-line from late 19th century Germany to the modern US (and they were the two largest Protestant populations in the world at the start of the 20th Century), I wonder what the depression stats look like in current and former Protestant countries. It's certainly the case that South America, being almost exclusively Catholic, is generally found to be more collective in nature, appraching the levels of East Asian countries, and collectivism leads to more inter-personal interaction which lead to a least the opportunity to have more close friends. Additionally, the Contact hypothesis suggests that wealthier people have less contact with people, in general (larger houses, gated communities, more exclusivity in their choice of restaurants and holiday destinations), so the correlation between wealth and reduced human contact leading to aberrant beliefs has been theorized since 1947, thanks to sociologist Robin Williams, Jr., and more widely known, thanks to Gordon Allport, since 1954. On the last part about living in the present, I would just note that doing so to a pathological level, i.e. having time-blindness and a reduced sensitivity to deadlines and the future in general (aka ADHD), is actually the cause of depression; people with ADHD are many times more likely than the general population to be depressed and/or anxious. edit: And, lo! and behold, your next video, chronologically is on the Protestant work ethic🤣
People that say money doesn’t lead to happiness are deluding themselves. Of course it leads to happiness, it allows you freedom to explore the world without any restrictions. That’s why people from poor countries strive to live in rich, wealthier countries. It’s all about freedom to choose to do the things you want to do. Without money you are trapped.
ur doing great! thank u very much for giving me videos i can share, where my points get prooven. cuz pretty much every topic u made a video to i had the feeling of "there is st wrong, why dont we act against it" u give me the sources and exact numbers i need for my endless discussions!
Very good vidéo. I believe that our way of living now doesn't let us enough time to live. Our jobs are demanding, parentality is demanding, screens just sucks our free time far beyond our will. There is no time left for making friends, having fun or just being bored. Society likes it like this : people being isolated one from another, occupied with screens, preoccupied by future and work, this way no large scale strikes, no revolution.
Why we're not happier? Cos prices over the last 5 years doubled (and rent tripled or quadrupled), and salaries didn't. Layoffs are at a record high. Some new job listings make you laugh, but most make you cry and fear for the economy.
The internet dearly needs more clever and sensible videos like this one. People today arent truly fulfilled like previous people were to a larger degree according to good folks like Daniel Schmachtenberger and many other smart people , and im dumb as hell, but I also hold that to be true for whatever its worth. I love your videoa. Please keep them coming.
If you believe in an idea that is not true, then your reality will feel not aligned with your idea. Happiness is a choice. A choice to focus on what you appreciate and what you are thankful for.
An excellent video, thank you! However, as an urban studies scholar, I was surprised that changes in our environments were not mentioned at all. Today, it's common to spend the whole day sitting down indoors: whether it's at home, school, office or in the car (or public transport). There's very little physical activity in nature and this has been proven to be one of the major causes of mental health problems. Further, we've lost meaningful connection/interaction with our surroundings: as kids many of us built tree huts, played in creeks etc, being engaged through all the senses, manually attending to the world. Today's work and play are both screen-based. There's a massive gap in our aesthetic capabilities/needs and actual aesthetic experiences that's unfulfilled.
This was fascinating, enlightning, and scary. You know what would have added a lot of value to this video would have been a section at the end that starts with... So what do we do next? And then begin to lay out possible scenarios and solutions. Otherwise, what you've done is just to feed into the feelings of depression and anxiety. Giving people the idea that there are no solutions and no hope.
The puzzle piece of loneliness or having no friends leading to depression is quite gamechanging. Have you ever asked, what makes a good friend? Is it somone I can ask for help or is it someone who asks me for help? Simon Sinek says: We do not build trust by offering help, we build trust by asking for it. What if I am not a good friend because of the reasons noone ever needs or asks my help?
So many new jobs have been created in Australia to keep people in employment. Most of these jobs are targeted towards temporary part-time workers, women in particular. Whole industries have arisen in home care (community care workers) so these jobs need customers (i.e. people in need) so it's a circular economy based on the production and consumption of helplessness. Depressing.
I never felt more poor than when I made $133K last year. All the wasted hours on OT could've been used by me to pursue hobbies or self-improvement. All I did was just squeak into a higher tax bracket to have my extra effort be eviscerated by taxes and deductions.
Because happiness comes with a mindset change. J feel like I’m happier when I stopped expecting to be happy non stop. When every time I have a sad moment I tell myself it will pass. I became happy when I gathared a natural purpose (owning a home and starting a family then figuring out what I will do career wise when I’m older and hopefully wiser). I started being happier when I add a positive comment to my negative comment (rationalising my own thoughts). I’ve become happier when I put a limit on my social media time. I became happier when I started creating content for social media and did not stay on social media to look at the results. I just liked the process and I posted the result, what happens after that doesn’t matter, the process mattered and the video is a reminder of the fun I had doing it. I became happier when I worked and then had a small holiday to enjoy. Yeah I’m sometimes anxious (most times actually because now I drive and I do not enjoy it one bit or feel comfortable doing it but I have to still brave through it because its the only way to move around in the country I am in). I stopped letting my ideology control me. I’m not strict anymore with my lack of climate action (ditching corporations and stuff) I just do what I can and what I can’t do I deal with it and say its not just my responsibility I can’t change anything on my own just do my part. And its okay to make mistakes sometimes because its bad anyway so it could only get better.
If you are happiness is depends on things untrue then you will happy and sad all the sudden. If you truly waked and not in dream, there are joy but not happiness. The way dopamine works is back and forth, so there is no way getting more happy without more sad/disappointment.
Impressive video! Life's but a fleeting moment on this earth. Let's shed needless worry, savoring nature and exploring diverse cultures. Traveling to embrace novelty signifies the luxury of leisure, a privilege reserved for the fortunate with means. Do you believe happiness is a goal or more of a by product? Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) once said “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” Aka. We need the freedom to be ourselves! In the West, We are not forced into unpleasant activities. We either allow them to come about or we encourage them to come about?
Thanks for insightful thoughts. (Most days) I agree with the Buddhist view that pursuing happiness as a goal doesn't really make sense, as happiness comes and goes, regardless of our wealth. Why do you believe we keep striving for even more material wealth even though we already have more than we need?
Mental illnesses is the "luxury" disease. If you dont worry about surviving you have more time to think. This always leads to regrets and thinking always how you could do things differently and better. You start to compare outcomes you could achieve. You compare yourself to all these things you see online, in instagram, and you say to yourself "maybe i didnt try hard enough" "maybe i could do better". Overthinking and the absence of deep relationships is what causes mental illness. But in order to have time to think you must not have a difficult time meeting your basic needs.
I respectfully disagree. Plenty of refugees and poor people also experience severe mental illness. The statistics collected on them are poor because preventable medical illness is what the research concentrates on in these people. Plenty of people in the concentration camps died of suicide. The most obvious method of suicide in these camps would be to break the rules and get shot or simply give up and refuse the rations they gave you. I do agree with you one of the major contributors to mental health is a number of relationships - not only close familial relationships but friends and community relationships.
Thats just not true, if anything economic and social hardship makes these illnesses worse to deal with You literally cant build up and sustain healthy habits if you have to work double shifts to afford rent
No, substance abuse, violence, self deletion etc increase when times are materially worse. They just aren’t picked up by statistics generally as people don’t go to the therapist when they need money. Look at the devastation of the 90’s in the eastern block and tell me those people were mentally healthier from experiencing that chaos. People that experience economic turmoil in their early adulthood never have more than one kid due to never feeling secure which is an obvious sign of issues.
Important topic and very interesting insights (as always). One thing I thought of - do you believe there’s still a difference in how less rich countries talk openly about mental healt, and that there might be a lot of unknown numbers that affect the data in that sense?
From the urban planning channels I watch, similar results have been shown to correlate from the existence of car dependency and suburbia. From the epidemiology channels I watch, similar results have been shown to correlate from the existence of the western diet (low fibre, low fat, high fructose diet). I'd be interested to see the cross-section of these three subjects and how they correlate towards the collapse of mental health in the modern age. Modern economics, modern diet, and modern planning really went into high gear in the 1960s and 1970s -- so, there's likely something there.
Money never makes people happier. Money is there to make your life more comfortable. First, the thing that make people happier and have peace in their life is knowing our Lord our Savior. Once you know him, your life just falls in place with happiness. Believe me. I have been down this road thinking money makes you happy.
It's the problem.. all western nations have both parents work. Kids are to expensive and we don't spend lots of time with them.. what's the meening of life with out reproducing? Gluteney
What about another factor: By becoming richer, we receive the freedom to inspect us and our world more carefully - thereby coming into contact with fears that would otherwise be suppressed. In other words, we can afford to stop working (What may be called freedom of regression). However, I admit that it doesn't go well with the data that rich people seem happier overall. Anyways, I would be interested if someone wants to share thoughts about this.
Great report. I believe "diet" maybe a factor worth investigating as well. The western diet filled with highly processed products, excess sugar, oil and salt has been linked to a rise in mental health and other health issues.
Because we evolved struggling. The age of comfort is very short, and highly unusual. All of your bodies reward mechanisms have evolved to overcoming adversity.
I think it's of the utmost importance that we change the discussion of what's important to a country. GDP is meaningless and we should look at happiness and similar statistics to gauge how a country is doing. That will eventually change the political discussion. But it will be a long road to get there.
Well, wealth has increased but mainly for people who already had more than enough to begin with. Money is a strange thing, if you have not enough of it you think about it a lot. Too much of it and you also spend way too much time with it on your mind. Perhaps I’m just speaking personally but when I have just enough I think about it rarely
one problem with a lot of money is it raises expections and happiness floor ... its not enough to have 4 cars .... you must have a better one than the person you are competing with .... or that if you have money and you have to use something substandard for a while it immediately makes you irritated or insecure.
Being wealthy allows time to wallow in self absorption. We are no longer challenged so much by day to day life but need to find purpose in ourselves. We also need others less but find perhaps that we want them more. None of that is really the fault of growth, it’s a spurious connection that we seek progress to achieve happiness. We progress because that’s the trajectory of a restless intelligent species. We can only sit still for so long before the most curious amongst us want to see what’s over the horizon. But we shouldn’t look too far to find happiness, it’s within us and around us, don’t expect it to find it in what you buy. I agree with many of the reasons put forward for unhappiness here, we can be conscious of those but I’m not expecting economic growth to solve them. But without progress we wouldn’t live as long or have as many options to maximise our experiences in this life. That’s good enough for me, money isn’t everything but taking it away from me i.e. with taxes definitely makes me less happy. I travel the world, lucky me, I find in many poor countries people seem happy but I’m not looking to swap places, I count my blessings and consider myself more fulfilled than those. Neither am I envious of Buffet or Gates, there’s no need to be, we don’t need that much money. What would make me unhappy is if my freedom and independence is put at risk by wealth disparity. That is a risk but I don’t consider it to be so today. Ultimately happiness is subjective, it’s a falsehood of science to treat it as objectively measured. Wealth is more objectively measured, let’s not miss the point of life by conflating the two.
Exciting news! Roland Paulsen's book "Why We Worry," which we discuss in this video, is now available in English-and even better, it's OPEN ACCESS, so you can read it for free! This book has deeply influenced my thinking, and I highly recommend giving it a read. You find it here: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003514930/worry-roland-paulsen
I think happiness starts once we realize there is such a thing as "enough", and what makes it up is inside our brain not in the outside world.
People cant afford food! Food is not found 'within' you. Basic physical needs are real.
I'd say both @stephen.macleod and @marianhunt8899 are right. If you have what should be enough by any sensible definition, then you need to recognize that. If you don't have enough, then you're in the situation Marian Hunt talks about.
@@marianhunt8899sorry for you wherever you are
I and my city a small countryside town in Thailand we got food in this one town
@@tpsam The west have a lot of food, but rich people have it all and sell it so high, many people can barely afford it.
Life has become unreasonably complicated . Having been very ambitious as a young person , I can say doing that with kids is impossible with out ruining the close bonds of friends and family .Money seems to drive every thought and every decision .Survival is taking over all priorities . We all are mostly working just to sleep and do it again .
Amen, States here, 7k in bills, just to keep it going with kids. Nothing extravagant. It's constant money stress
That's all I do anymore. 😮
I think there are two things that are happening, since were rich we now go to depression and meaning because we have fixed the issues that can be fixed, but at the same time there are many bad things happening like cost of living increase driven by corruption due to stuff like lobying, gerrymandering, wars good for the mic. Also technology is being adopted not because of happiness, but because what the rich people can get, SNS usage increases loneliness.
Money has absolute no power except for the greed of those who have less. So long as people stupidly rush to have more money than they need, billionaires will still control the world
Ne morate imati.djecu ako nemate uvjete ,ne morate živjeti u velikom prostoru ,ne morate voziti luksuzne auhomobile itd
Financial security is liberty. The wealth has been redistributed upward since the '70s. Making rich people richer at everyone else's expense is not making the country better, it's causing more harm, death, and insanity.
The amounts of deaths has steadily decreased since the 70s though - at all time lows as we are right now. As well as the standard of living has risen a lot since then. People just love to cry a lot.
@@MsFallenPrime a lack of empathy is so prominent, please don't proliferate it
@@MsFallenPrime Since the 70s the amount of suicides has risen, the cost of living has risen, inflation has risen etc. Therefore, although the amount of deaths has decreased - the quality of life has decreased as well. This signifies people indeed have a reason to “cry”. Your closing statement clearly comes from a place of ignorance
@@ChiseledJay the thing is wages have increased a lot more than inflation has - thus that is invalid. The suicide mostly is a white male thing however, with 2x the rate over blacks . THough suicide rates are as high as in the 1950s right now. The suicide rates are nothing extreme, but alarming at least and something should be done about it.
@@MsFallenPrime You’re incorrect. Increasing wages does not counteract inflation. An example - by raising wages, inflation increases simultaneously by companies raising prices. Hence, the opposite occurs. Additionally, in 1985 the average home price was 4.4x the average income, in 2024 it has skyrocketed up to almost 50% at 7.0x the average income.
One work-related factor that has not been addressed is how much our lives revolve around work and career and how other aspects that contribute to a healthy life are left aside. Sustaining a high standard of living is expensive, and to pay this price we need to dedicate ourselves from a very early age to studying in an increasingly competitive way to enter an extremely demanding work environment, along the way things like family, friends, relationships, meaningful leisure, and mental health are left aside as secondary aspects of a person's life.
They're Swedish, their government actually tries to fix those things
Utrka štakora
That's assuming meritocracy actually exists
Unequal poor countries is more depressed...poor people too. No meanefull jobs and friends available...is a point.
Now we need work in these factors...the world is better but we cry more and create less then back then.
Because it does not matter if the country's wealth grows if the 'wealth growth' comes from 8 billionaires - because then the reality is that the rest of the country suffers.
Billionaires who don't even pay taxes to the country that allows them to do business. 😮
The more a country's "GDP" increases, the more gross domestic products that country creates. 😪
Then why is lifespan increasing for everyone, education increasing for everyone and cars increasing for everyone?
Is everyone winning or now?
@@marcus.H General lifespan does not define quality of life, as psychological issues and chronic issues plague the masses in the US. Yes, you’ll stay alive but with hundreds of thousands in medical debt, anxiety and depression tagged along; Also, we arguably have a lower lifespan than at least 40 other countries.yet a higher wealth growth, ain’t that odd?
Cars for everyone ? Yeah the vast majority of the new ones stay on the lot, because the vast majority of people are unable to afford them!! Even used cars from 2016 are around $15k. That is an 8 year old car; you are out of your mind if you think anyone is trying to pay $15k for that.
As for education, that’s a joke right? We have been in an enrollment rate decline, and it’s bad compared to other countries, this is expected to continue. Again people are straight up refusing to go into insane debt, because they realize they lose more than they are gaining.
We are not winning, we are losing and at a rapid pace.
There are many more metrics that show that an average person has a better life now than a couple of generations ago.
The life expectancy increase isn’t driven by billionaires living for thousands years, at least not yet :-)
I'm a native of the West who has now spent more than half my life in developing countries. Where I've lived, without exception, family and community is stronger than in the "prosperous west". Individualism, the cornerstone of Western Culture, never takes precedence over the group. It must make concessions for social harmony and the wellbeing of the family and community. And people are happier. Then I turn on UA-cam and watch modern-day Western intellectuals praise the outstanding tenets of Western Culture, drawing upon financial prosperity as indicative the Western model's superiority. Populations decline, psychological wellbeing declines, environmental health declines, and the West opines about why this is happening, but rarely addresses the elephant in the room. From my perspective it's obvious. We are evolved to work together and to look out for each other. The sophistication of our contemporary economies doesn't change millions of years of evolution.
This. I am an Asian living in the west. Jesus, people here are are so individualistic and so miserable and they can't seem to understand that it's because you keep downplaying the importance of real community.
Im just happy because I get to benefit from the economical advantages of living in the west, and also understand that it is connection with other people that actually makes me happy and live a meaningful life. I have my family here with me, and my neighbor share the same values too so I got lucky like that. I can't say the same for my peers here.
Couldn't have said it better...
Yeah, people are becoming more selfish by the day. They rather let other people suffer cause "fReEDoM". The happiest western countries are scandinavian with great social safety nets and a sense of community. But in other countries they will yell "Socialism" at that...
Its a balance, west is now too individualistic. Other cultures mostly so family orientated...ive met foreign couples with kids who literally cannot even talk to each other other than "get the baby nappy/milk"...yes even the wife ! All eyes, feelings to kid. Balance is key !!
I would say that for good families, prioritizing the family/community over the individual for sure makes one happier, as I have witnessed in some friends. I'm Asian. In my family, where we value the elderly more, and the elderly are traumatized from childhood, it becomes dysfunctional. We do the gathering like other families. We all pretend we are happy to see each other. We try to keep the elderly happy. No one mentions anything about the dysfunctions, and all the misunderstandings / contempts for each other just build up over the years, never discussed or resolved.
Think of money as rights and you will see immediately notice why happiness only increases within a range of equality. Astronomical wealth/rights means master and slaves.
Money is freedom points in this society
So why are women so unhappy now that they have all their rights, freedoms, and means of acquiring their own money?
@@behie And then rephrase it because money just not "is" ... its no natural phenomenon. We MAKE money. We as humans. We construct it. We define it. We create it.
So... we CREATED money to be freedom. And everything we construct... we can change!
@@BoothTheGrey Absolutely
Indentured servitude is the modern (capitalist) version of slavery.
Most of the wealth goes to people that didn’t earn it.
And yet there are people who believe we live in a meritocracy.
Well if you can get wealthy without work and earning it, by this logic majority of us should be wealthy then? 😂
@@acz88 what I mean is working class people get scraps in comparison to what the ceo or capitalistic elites get most of the share of money that working class people worked for. Jobless people are broke.
@@acz88only if you believe most do not work
@@acz88 elon musk the guy who was born with money from an emerald mine that used slave labor during apartheid south africa was hardworking, not the black people who were forced to do heavy labor to make his dad rich.
This channel should be so much more popular based on the edits alone
Yes, I'm surprised it isn't bigger than it is.
True. That clip of the Obama speech on the laptop on the desk was super-engaging.
I was about to write this, but you did it spot on.. The edit is amazing, the Narrative is clearly spoken out.
I love the production quality of your videos! Great video and great topic.
These videos are just criminally underrated in so many ways from the content, to the cinematic feel, to the top class editing and graphics on screen. You have many skills I hope you are managing to use them to their full potential
Hey, thank you so much, that's a very kind comment :)
You approached this topic from the best perspective that I have ever seen. Basic Living should not be this difficult & challenging to afford here in the US. (I love my country) but It feels like no matter what we do, it doesn't matter, you'll barely be able to afford your rent, you feel worthless, it's getting so out of control. ~Serious question: HOW has our country been allowed to get THIS bad? And Nothing is being done about it. It isn't being talked about or addressed as a crucial issue that needs to be addressed right away within our society. Perpetual growth is impossible. Yet our country acts like continual growth is completely possible and they basically treat profit growth as a requirement. There is no way anything can function like this. 85% of the population cannot afford Rent. It also affects small town businesses due to the rent for their stores is also completely unaffordable. Our country pretty much requires everybody to obtain ever increasing income options. Just to keep up with affording basic rent. Well it's completely impossible. It's not possible that everybody can be that wealthy. So lots of store fronts are becoming vacant. Average people cannot afford basic rent. There is absolutely no help for our citizens who are now stuck in poverty.. (and worst of all, we have to wake up everyday and see that our country is completely ignoring that any of this is happening. The media just acts like none of this is going on. They just continue to show us clips on the news and statistics in the media about "How much our economy is thriving")
Australia 🇦🇺 too and yet the highest number of homeless are over 55 women, but many many more from all walks of life.
All our community services are being stripped, education, healthcare, unaffordable rents(if you can find one) wage freezes lasting decades and on and on the list goes...
Depression can arise from living in survival mode constantly and no matter how much more work you do, you know you are still going backwards. I also believe that for many it's not about wanting more, it's about the rich and corporations paying their fair share of taxes!
Our economic paradigm is obsolete, and no one in the media is talking about it- except for PBS on very rare occassions.
Everything changed for the worse during the Reagan administration and all the problems we're facing began there.
The changes they made to the tax code shifted the tax burden from the rich to the middle class. Result- the middle class was decimated.
Corporate philosophy took an Ayn Randian turn and sociopathy became a virtue in CEO behavior.
Schools quit teaching civics.
The fairness dictrine was ended.
Newsrooms were forced to become "for profit" and their duty to inform the public rescinded.
We get richer? Who are you talking to? I'm not getting richer, my family's not getting richer, my neighbors aren't getting richer ...
Yes, we are getting more wealthier worldwide. Many 3rd world countries are starting to get more into 2nd world due to adaptation to the 1st world.
However, inequality is also on the rise due to that.
@@VVabsa Only very few people throughout the world are getting richer. That's it. Almost all people in almost all countries are getting poorer.
@@DipayanPyne94 It's not that we are getting poorer just cause economics. It's that we are more indidualistic compared to those few people who get richer which translates each person on their own, having less.
The most wealthiest people are the ones who are within families that look after eachother and make sure they make the right investments.
@@VVabsa No. You clearly don't know what is going on.
@@DipayanPyne94 I perfectly do. You just don't want to accept the fact you need your friends and family to stand a chance in the modern world.
I'm captivated by the beautiful way the video is edited. The soundtrack fits so well with the narrative. This is top notch video production
Nya favoritkanalen på UA-cam!
We search for happiness, but only need contentment.
Not too many people know that when they see it. 😢
I think that the problem is: The wealthier your surrounding get, the more you have to hustle to keep up, otherwise you won’t be able to afford anything anymore. If all would collectively decide to chill out more and salaries would be more equal, so many problems would be fixed. But I guess the nature of humans clashes with this thought.
socialism seems to be the solution to this problem, but at the same time, it will create poverty.
That would mean prices would have to undergo a deflation of course were that not to happen bubbles would not deflate it would pop
almost like there are different economic models that don't require profit margins to go up in order to achieve instability.
plus, there's not such a thing as "nature of humans", humanity's nature changes with the environment, if the grind is all we know, we respect the grind, but the world doesn't need to be this way
Happiness comes from having the perspective that things are improving. For instance, after getting over a cold you might feel very happy to be able to breathe easily through your nose. If you were not sick previously, this won’t put a smile on your face. If one is homeless, but then gets a nice apartment, they will be happy to have shelter. A recently divorced Dad forced to move into a similar apartment from a fancy pants home might feel terribly sad to have live in such a place…
Millennials were the last generation to have an optimistic childhood
Very interesting!! This is some high quality, high value stuff! The seven explanations are brilliant, very well researched, *and* rendered/delivered. I'm very glad I just discovered your channel; I subscribed, barely two minutes into the video!
The explanations discussed here, gave me an idea; Put together/in correlation, they made me see an eightth, possible explanation...: That maybe, the very lack of "hardship", and focus on greater economic & societal "advancement" (i.e.: further eradicating hardship, in profit of bolstering general "comfort" & "safety") in the "first world"/developed nations, could be cocooning us into purposeless, isolating, overprotective, "bubbles", effectively rendering us similar to overprotected, inexperienced & fearful, highly reactive children...feeling evermore "alone", helpless & incapacitated, in the face of an ever-increasing, global wall of "threats" - thanks to the media...
Whereas, the general state of life in developing nations, with its higher incidence of hardship, lesser economic disparity, greater reliance on human connections, & lesser focus/availability, or relevance of "global media horrors" - seemingly closer/more akin to an "older" way of life -, may, in fact, render the people, generally more "used to", desensitized, & also feeling more *able* to deal with the kind of lives they face... I mean; to me, the differences seem to indicate, that the greater incidence of imminent risks to one's life would not only, likely, plant one firmly "in the now" (mentally & emotionnally), but this might also set one "on a par" with some of the more dramatic global news - making it that much *less* shocking -, as well as, finally, offering one the proverbial "backbone" of greater social interconnectivity, to better "weather the storms"/ills and issues, that befall said populations... Effectively turning them into much more "now-focused", less reactive, & generally more "able-feeling" people - which is funny, because, as I'm typing this, I feel like calling them "adults" -...no?
Just for clarification; I do mean, just as in the video, on a global scale, as a "macro-view" of global, societal trends.
... Am I the only one to see the possibility of that currently playing out, in our world? Or am I just possibly, a bit *too* critical, lol?!😅🤦🏻♀️
Edit: To readers; Sorry about the wordiness.🙏 I just naturally tend to be quite passionate about such subjects.☝️🤔🤓
Thanks for you comment! Maybe you have a point. Do you agree with Steven Pinker when he writes that: "a modicum of anxiety may be the price we pay for the uncertainty of freedom."?
Yes l can see your point, however l also believe that while workers are treated as expendables, not valued and underpaid whilst the owners of these corporations are making really big profits, paying CEO's obscene wages and golden handshakes... for many times decreasing the workforce eg overheads, never showing any loyalty to those they demand it from... that argument is only a symptom of a much bigger problem😢
In my personal case I feel this way just because of my work and working in general. I work 8 hours a day and I am so overloaded at work that when I come back home I can't do anything meaningful at all. I think I could deal with a job that didn't make any meaningful impact on anything if I could come back home and invest my energy into something that I love and find meaningful. I can't. I waste my time at work for the money that don't let me have any fulfilling life and the overload wastes my time after work too. I feel like everyone is trying to save money on everything to have a bit more for themselves driving everyone else around crazy. And I work in Finland where the working conditions are one of the best in the world. I can't imagine what people go through in less developed countries. This year I spent 2 month in total being on a sick leave because of depression and I feel like I may need the third one.
Thank you for sharing. I'm sad to hear that. You are not alone. What industry do you work in?
@@TheMarketExit 🙏 I work in the healthcare but the experience isn't limited to the field imho. It's mostly always been like this no matter what the job title was. People around me feel the same way and I wonder what's wrong with the system. Thanks for your video, it helped to put some things into perspective.
Why don't you have kids? Have a wife or husband that you pay for them to be with your kids. Teach them about life make the world a bit more like you.. a bit better
@@johney3734 I can't understand if it's irony or not, in case it's not I don't think this world deserves to be better nor do I want to waste any energy on improving something from which I get nothing but more problems, I don't support this always pointless self sacrifice for the sake of the greater good. Also kids are alive beings and I don't want to use them as tools to achieve any goal, this is what got me here and I refuse to repeat this evil act. It's been 30 years of my life and I absolutely haven't seen any good reason to bring anyone here to put them through this meat grinder.
If working is the reason for unhappiness, even tho work has always been a thing, it sounds like the answer would be automation combined with UBI.
But even then I wonder how fulfilled people will feel not having an empowering purpose
The human psyche is full of contradictions and complications
Bullying and harassment are a huge problem in the miserable states of America 🇺🇸
True, rich people and christions are out of control.
I’m telling you. Tell me where there is a sense of community and people actually mingle? I don’t think it exists in the states anymore.
Happiness? I have understood what causes it, but I never ever hear anyone else ever mention it. Which surprises me. Happiness and satisfaction is the psychological reward we get when we act in accordance with our human instincts. When we live a natural life. Just as dogs feel happy to be among others dogs, playing, sniffing each other, mating, humans also have these same needs. Friends, family, a life partner, children, releases seratonine in the brain. But fewer and fewer people get to satisfy these basic human needs today compared to before when the west were poor, and people lived most of their lives in the same village they were born in (today we all live like nomads, moving and changing social settings all through our lives, losing friends along the way). Wealth does not bring us friends, love, family or children. The more unnatural a society and culture becomes, the less happiness and satisfaction people will feel. Technology does not increase the amounts of friends or the chance of creating a family or have children, quite the contrary.
I disagree I think technology can help us become better, the problem is the big companies want to make more profits so they create products like SNS (Facebook) or the badly planed suburbs that make people less happy instead of more happy.
Well, partners and friends can also make you sick if they are not the right ones.
Besides that, also the reaching of a goal or finding a solution to a problem or simply finally understanding something can provide you with endorphines and make you happy. And for that you sometimes need to be alone.
We need people around us who satisfy both our intincts and our individual needs. And that may be the greater problem in terms of finding. And sometimes we want to be alone and undisturbed to be completely ourselves and not having to satisfy the needs of others.
It should be a suitable compromise. We are no dogs, after all.
謝謝你提供此節目。你讓我心中許多深藏在心中深處的疑問逐漸淸楚。答案得我自己尋找。至少在黑暗中，你給我一束蠻強烈的光，去思考，去感受，去尋找。謝謝你。
This deserves far more than 33k views.
Social media, especially social media addiction, which most people seem to have now, is responsible for the decline in mental health
Such an egregious omission of the significant change, over the last 60 years, in what we ate and its strong association with the decline in physical and mental health over that same period.
The way he explains economic growth is kinda like a flex. Reminds me of the dudes who can only talk about how much money they have than you
Who would have thought that living as a modern slave who can barely get by would not be fullfilling
Thank you for a very nice video! Moving to Sweden from post soviet country, one of my cultural shock was how much everyone speaks about importance of gdp and economic growth, while there is no developed things for ordinary people. I mean, why do I care that Sweden is very rich, while I even can not buy food after 23.00 or order it to my place since delivery only exists in the city center. Banks are just a joke. Such things are just ridiculous. I think that one of the philosophical reasons is that people are crazy abut being exceptional and ambitious. I believe that we need to think and care more about each other.
Thanks for your comment. I know, the more you think about it, the weirder you realize it is that we obsess so much over GDP and economic growth. You are right, we need to think and care more about each other. What would it take for that to happen?
@@TheMarketExit Teach empathy ? As a MD I took courses on communication and I have the feeling that these kind of softskills can be enhanced. Same as physical performance, we are not born the same but almost everyone can work on upgrading these skills.
Some people are so poor all they have is money - Bob Marley
A logarithmic transformation or logit function is not a statistical "trick." It is in fact very common and for problems that lie in a range from 0 to 1 it actually makes a lot of sense. Transformations are not tricks; not all relationships are linear. Another thing that i noticed was that there was a lot of variance in the graphs which suggests that whatever the relationship it is quite weak at all income levels. Also, while I do not think it is a problem in this case, a very common trap people fall into is looking at two things increasing or decreasing over time and immediately assuming a relationship. Regardless, still a great video and I think you still get a lot of things right.
Great comment. I also think is quite misleading to say the log transformation is a "trick". In this case happiness is capped at 10 so the log transformation makes sense.
I think it's particularly pernicious in this case because we're talking about a book marketed towards a general audience, not a journal article. I don't think most people reading this book are going to check for things like this, or even know what a logarithmic scale means.
Thanks for your comment! I do agree with you, in general. But I stand by calling this particular use of log scale a "trick", here's why: Using a logarithmic scale for comparing wealth across countries significantly underrepresents the vast disparities in wealth and this method becomes particularly misleading when presented to general audiences who may not realize the scale is compressed. As a result, the substantial economic differences, especially at the extreme ends of the wealth spectrum, seem less severe than they are in reality.
I do recognize the value of log transformations in various statistical analyses, but I don't think it's appropriate in the case of wealth comparison. We need to be mindful what effects the choices of statistical representations may have for public perceptions. For instance, during the pandemic, one could argue that using logarithmic scales to visualize the spread of the virus would have been appropriate. However, most media outlets refrained from this approach. The reason is that logarithmic scales, which are not commonly understood by the general public, could have conveyed a misleading impression of the virus's rate of spread.
@@TheMarketExitIt seems to me that the logaritmic scale is especially appropriate for wealth. If you use a linear scale, than Bill Gates would be just as happy if he finds a thousand euros as I would be. A logaritmic scale would mean that I and Bill Gates would both be just as happy with a 10% increase in wealth, which seems far more reasonable.
@@MarijnMan I hear you. But my take is exactly the same, but from another angle. Just because Bill Gates wouldn't be excited about a 1,000 EUR bill, the overwhelming vast majority of the world would be extremely excited for that bill. A logarithmic scale hides how much good the excess wealth could do for the ones who have less. I'd be happy to hear what you think of that view. Cheers!
I believe a big part of this is inequality, exposure and self comparison, which are all basically the same thing. As a person who lives in a 3rd world country, as it's called, I see that those who don't have Internet social medias are happier, those who don't live in the capital city (those who can't normally see the mansions and the slums) are happier and those who, even though they know inequality exists, they don't really feel/see it around them (like me) are happier.
It's not about the existence of inequality, but that if you feel it or not. A rich society with less bragging is much happier than a rich one with more bragging/luxury.
That's actually one of the reasons I support not taxing wealth, but taxing luxury and unutilized wealths
Your videos are an embodiment of production excellence and I'm truly astonished that this channel hasn't reached a much wider audience. I much prefer this to Johnny Harris. Keep up the good work!
Wow, thank you! That's extremely kind. If you want to, you can help me out by sharing my videos with your friends, colleagues etc. :)
I'm uploading a new essay very very soon!
Wow Andres, det är såå bra👏🏻
10:11 To what extent the dynamics in statistics about mental health problems is due to more people being diagnosed with depression etc. as we get richer? I totally share your general assumption and the reason behind making this video, however in some cases it is problematic to clearly say what is the real process behind the statistical image. Just think about autism or ADHD - both are very strongly detremined by neorology and genetics. For this reason the number of people with these predicaments is rather stable. You see a strong rise in number of diagnosis because we started paying more attention to these issues.
I fucking hate the lie that everything is getting better. I felt so fucking gaslighted by it for such a long time, until I've seen it debunked with actual, honest data. And I fucking hate Pinker.
I agree with your initial point. Relating advancements/growth to overall human happiness in a confided observation. Maslow's Hierarchy in Needs is much closer to the human prediciment. AKA deny a generation of home ownership, retirement, affordable family and expect they will willingly participate and somehow be happy is delusional. The other observations are interesting but otherwise flubber.
It is getting better just not for westerners and especially America. Africa is no longer a starving warzone for the most part and Asia is growing or already industrialized
Did you ever see Taleb's take down of Pinker's Pollyanna opinion on the decrease of violence in the world?
It’s getting better globally excluding western countries.
Very high production values on display here. A thought-provoking video tackling some complex and important social issues.
the optimistic pursuit of purpose, vision and goals often cause happiness as a byproduct... money can buy dreams, but then the journey is over
i feel its because when you have very little , and then you have some , you feel grateful
but when you have enough and decide to strive for more .... the mindset is no longer gratefulness
This video speaks volumes. I recognize the loneliness a lot among people I met and I often go out just to remove technology from my life so I can connect with people gow I used to as a child and teen. It is so hard finding a valuable friendship these days. Much might be technology but it might be economy inequality and such as well. Good video!
Another great video och relevant topic!
I feel depressed after watching this. Thank you!
This channel is truly underrated
Another fantastic presentation (of the two that I've seen), thank you, Andres.
I remember that Frans de Waal, some years ago, said that, as a general rule, whilst most people in his native Holland are atheist, there is a distinct difference between former-Catholics and former-Protestants, in that ex-Protestants were invariably less happy and more bitter. Given that Protestantism and Capitalism have become inextricably linked, with a strong through-line from late 19th century Germany to the modern US (and they were the two largest Protestant populations in the world at the start of the 20th Century), I wonder what the depression stats look like in current and former Protestant countries. It's certainly the case that South America, being almost exclusively Catholic, is generally found to be more collective in nature, appraching the levels of East Asian countries, and collectivism leads to more inter-personal interaction which lead to a least the opportunity to have more close friends.
Additionally, the Contact hypothesis suggests that wealthier people have less contact with people, in general (larger houses, gated communities, more exclusivity in their choice of restaurants and holiday destinations), so the correlation between wealth and reduced human contact leading to aberrant beliefs has been theorized since 1947, thanks to sociologist Robin Williams, Jr., and more widely known, thanks to Gordon Allport, since 1954.
On the last part about living in the present, I would just note that doing so to a pathological level, i.e. having time-blindness and a reduced sensitivity to deadlines and the future in general (aka ADHD), is actually the cause of depression; people with ADHD are many times more likely than the general population to be depressed and/or anxious.
edit: And, lo! and behold, your next video, chronologically is on the Protestant work ethic🤣
That's a great comment, you called it!
@@TheMarketExit Thanks!
Keep up the fantastic work!
not sure why we assume that people living alone are lonely - i've lived my best years in solitude and I love it
hope you grow big on YT
People that say money doesn’t lead to happiness are deluding themselves. Of course it leads to happiness, it allows you freedom to explore the world without any restrictions. That’s why people from poor countries strive to live in rich, wealthier countries. It’s all about freedom to choose to do the things you want to do. Without money you are trapped.
I think the argument is that money makes you happy up to a point, past that, money becomes less effective
what's your take on people who win the lottery?
ur doing great! thank u very much for giving me videos i can share, where my points get prooven. cuz pretty much every topic u made a video to i had the feeling of "there is st wrong, why dont we act against it" u give me the sources and exact numbers i need for my endless discussions!
We are spoiled with quality videos like this. Kudos to you. Cheers.
Very good vidéo. I believe that our way of living now doesn't let us enough time to live. Our jobs are demanding, parentality is demanding, screens just sucks our free time far beyond our will. There is no time left for making friends, having fun or just being bored.
Society likes it like this : people being isolated one from another, occupied with screens, preoccupied by future and work, this way no large scale strikes, no revolution.
For my case, I am much happer now than in my 20s thanks to the medication that helps alleviate ly arthritis. So optimism reigns in my life!
Why we're not happier? Cos prices over the last 5 years doubled (and rent tripled or quadrupled), and salaries didn't. Layoffs are at a record high. Some new job listings make you laugh, but most make you cry and fear for the economy.
Depression is the leading cause of everything post pandemic 😷
I'm glad The UA-cam suggested this CHANNEL. Keep awakening humans, keep going! ❤
The internet dearly needs more clever and sensible videos like this one. People today arent truly fulfilled like previous people were to a larger degree according to good folks like Daniel Schmachtenberger and many other smart people , and im dumb as hell, but I also hold that to be true for whatever its worth. I love your videoa. Please keep them coming.
If you believe in an idea that is not true, then your reality will feel not aligned with your idea. Happiness is a choice. A choice to focus on what you appreciate and what you are thankful for.
top quality!!!
Great work guys! Your work is well worth it. Humanity matters. Thank you
BEST VIDEO I HAVE SEEN ON THIS SUBJECT. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
An excellent video, thank you! However, as an urban studies scholar, I was surprised that changes in our environments were not mentioned at all.
Today, it's common to spend the whole day sitting down indoors: whether it's at home, school, office or in the car (or public transport). There's very little physical activity in nature and this has been proven to be one of the major causes of mental health problems.
Further, we've lost meaningful connection/interaction with our surroundings: as kids many of us built tree huts, played in creeks etc, being engaged through all the senses, manually attending to the world. Today's work and play are both screen-based. There's a massive gap in our aesthetic capabilities/needs and actual aesthetic experiences that's unfulfilled.
Thanks for your comment. What should I read to understand your point better?
"I got mine, fk everyone and everything else" mantra has been voted for the last 5 decades.
“ Statistical alchemy “ is a wonderful term . An excellent video . Well done and than you .
great video as always...👍
Diminishing Marginal Utility on increased consumption
This was fascinating, enlightning, and scary.
You know what would have added a lot of value to this video would have been a section at the end that starts with... So what do we do next? And then begin to lay out possible scenarios and solutions.
Otherwise, what you've done is just to feed into the feelings of depression and anxiety. Giving people the idea that there are no solutions and no hope.
❤Absolutely awesome content. Also, top notch editing and av quality and graphics.
The puzzle piece of loneliness or having no friends leading to depression is quite gamechanging. Have you ever asked, what makes a good friend? Is it somone I can ask for help or is it someone who asks me for help? Simon Sinek says: We do not build trust by offering help, we build trust by asking for it.
What if I am not a good friend because of the reasons noone ever needs or asks my help?
Fear. While we are objectively more comfortable there are so many ways it can fall apart.
So many new jobs have been created in Australia to keep people in employment. Most of these jobs are targeted towards temporary part-time workers, women in particular. Whole industries have arisen in home care (community care workers) so these jobs need customers (i.e. people in need) so it's a circular economy based on the production and consumption of helplessness. Depressing.
You are giving so much value for free :)
Condolences for your gran grandmother,grandma's
Thanks for a provocative, deep and mindful topic
Great effort ❤
I never felt more poor than when I made $133K last year. All the wasted hours on OT could've been used by me to pursue hobbies or self-improvement. All I did was just squeak into a higher tax bracket to have my extra effort be eviscerated by taxes and deductions.
This was awesome. You deserve more views! Shared!
Because happiness comes with a mindset change. J feel like I’m happier when I stopped expecting to be happy non stop. When every time I have a sad moment I tell myself it will pass. I became happy when I gathared a natural purpose (owning a home and starting a family then figuring out what I will do career wise when I’m older and hopefully wiser). I started being happier when I add a positive comment to my negative comment (rationalising my own thoughts). I’ve become happier when I put a limit on my social media time. I became happier when I started creating content for social media and did not stay on social media to look at the results. I just liked the process and I posted the result, what happens after that doesn’t matter, the process mattered and the video is a reminder of the fun I had doing it. I became happier when I worked and then had a small holiday to enjoy. Yeah I’m sometimes anxious (most times actually because now I drive and I do not enjoy it one bit or feel comfortable doing it but I have to still brave through it because its the only way to move around in the country I am in). I stopped letting my ideology control me. I’m not strict anymore with my lack of climate action (ditching corporations and stuff) I just do what I can and what I can’t do I deal with it and say its not just my responsibility I can’t change anything on my own just do my part. And its okay to make mistakes sometimes because its bad anyway so it could only get better.
Wealth inequality is far more important than any other measure for happiness.
Can’t believe this only has a few thousand views. Amazing work dude!
Thank you very much! You can help me out by sharing it with a friend or two :)
If you are happiness is depends on things untrue then you will happy and sad all the sudden. If you truly waked and not in dream, there are joy but not happiness. The way dopamine works is back and forth, so there is no way getting more happy without more sad/disappointment.
Thank you from France Andres, I appreciate your work. Le fond et la forme as we say in french !
Merci beaucoup -- or tusen tack, as we say in Sweden :) That's very kind of you. Any suggestions on topics I should do videos about?
Impressive video! Life's but a fleeting moment on this earth. Let's shed needless worry, savoring nature and exploring diverse cultures. Traveling to embrace novelty signifies the luxury of leisure, a privilege reserved for the fortunate with means. Do you believe happiness is a goal or more of a by product? Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) once said “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” Aka. We need the freedom to be ourselves! In the West, We are not forced into unpleasant activities. We either allow them to come about or we encourage them to come about?
Thanks for insightful thoughts. (Most days) I agree with the Buddhist view that pursuing happiness as a goal doesn't really make sense, as happiness comes and goes, regardless of our wealth. Why do you believe we keep striving for even more material wealth even though we already have more than we need?
@@TheMarketExit mimetic behaviors ?
Thank you for the great documentary! 🙏
Mental illnesses is the "luxury" disease.
If you dont worry about surviving you have more time to think. This always leads to regrets and thinking always how you could do things differently and better. You start to compare outcomes you could achieve. You compare yourself to all these things you see online, in instagram, and you say to yourself "maybe i didnt try hard enough" "maybe i could do better".
Overthinking and the absence of deep relationships is what causes mental illness. But in order to have time to think you must not have a difficult time meeting your basic needs.
I respectfully disagree. Plenty of refugees and poor people also experience severe mental illness. The statistics collected on them are poor because preventable medical illness is what the research concentrates on in these people. Plenty of people in the concentration camps died of suicide. The most obvious method of suicide in these camps would be to break the rules and get shot or simply give up and refuse the rations they gave you. I do agree with you one of the major contributors to mental health is a number of relationships - not only close familial relationships but friends and community relationships.
No no I was definitely mire depressed when I was homeless and hungry.
I am from India, and having grown up seeing people living in Survival mode, i respectfully disagree. Alcohol and drug use here is rampant here.
Thats just not true, if anything economic and social hardship makes these illnesses worse to deal with
You literally cant build up and sustain healthy habits if you have to work double shifts to afford rent
No, substance abuse, violence, self deletion etc increase when times are materially worse. They just aren’t picked up by statistics generally as people don’t go to the therapist when they need money. Look at the devastation of the 90’s in the eastern block and tell me those people were mentally healthier from experiencing that chaos. People that experience economic turmoil in their early adulthood never have more than one kid due to never feeling secure which is an obvious sign of issues.
Important topic and very interesting insights (as always). One thing I thought of - do you believe there’s still a difference in how less rich countries talk openly about mental healt, and that there might be a lot of unknown numbers that affect the data in that sense?
no money no problem
From the urban planning channels I watch, similar results have been shown to correlate from the existence of car dependency and suburbia. From the epidemiology channels I watch, similar results have been shown to correlate from the existence of the western diet (low fibre, low fat, high fructose diet). I'd be interested to see the cross-section of these three subjects and how they correlate towards the collapse of mental health in the modern age. Modern economics, modern diet, and modern planning really went into high gear in the 1960s and 1970s -- so, there's likely something there.
So, capitalism.
Thanks!
Thank you Happy Sauce!
IF YOU HAVE WISDOM. YOU KNOW THE REASON.
Money never makes people happier. Money is there to make your life more comfortable. First, the thing that make people happier and have peace in their life is knowing our Lord our Savior. Once you know him, your life just falls in place with happiness. Believe me. I have been down this road thinking money makes you happy.
Capitalism isn't the answer.
It's the problem.. all western nations have both parents work. Kids are to expensive and we don't spend lots of time with them.. what's the meening of life with out reproducing? Gluteney
The systems we see are not the true Free Market Capitalism anyway. This corrupted mutation is just Neo-Feudalism
@@johney3734 So offer economic incentives to families (having a government worker raise your kids isn’t it)
@@johney3734 Also sounds like women working isn’t turning out how they thought. I thought they wanted to work and not raise kids?
@@Johnnysmithy24 well said.. in the old days they would give big tax breaks for dependents.. now it's a much more cruel life
What about another factor: By becoming richer, we receive the freedom to inspect us and our world more carefully - thereby coming into contact with fears that would otherwise be suppressed. In other words, we can afford to stop working (What may be called freedom of regression).
However, I admit that it doesn't go well with the data that rich people seem happier overall.
Anyways, I would be interested if someone wants to share thoughts about this.
Thanks.
Strålande video!
Tack! :)
Great report. I believe "diet" maybe a factor worth investigating as well. The western diet filled with highly processed products, excess sugar, oil and salt has been linked to a rise in mental health and other health issues.
Because we evolved struggling. The age of comfort is very short, and highly unusual. All of your bodies reward mechanisms have evolved to overcoming adversity.
You generally get out what you put into life, money, intelligence, friends, health ….
I think it's of the utmost importance that we change the discussion of what's important to a country. GDP is meaningless and we should look at happiness and similar statistics to gauge how a country is doing. That will eventually change the political discussion. But it will be a long road to get there.
The mind will create problems when none exist.
Modern life has created an idleness that is problem for many people.
Well, wealth has increased but mainly for people who already had more than enough to begin with. Money is a strange thing, if you have not enough of it you think about it a lot. Too much of it and you also spend way too much time with it on your mind. Perhaps I’m just speaking personally but when I have just enough I think about it rarely
one problem with a lot of money is it raises expections and happiness floor ... its not enough to have 4 cars .... you must have a better one than the person you are competing with .... or that if you have money and you have to use something substandard for a while it immediately makes you irritated or insecure.
Video was brilliantly done
Being wealthy allows time to wallow in self absorption. We are no longer challenged so much by day to day life but need to find purpose in ourselves. We also need others less but find perhaps that we want them more. None of that is really the fault of growth, it’s a spurious connection that we seek progress to achieve happiness. We progress because that’s the trajectory of a restless intelligent species. We can only sit still for so long before the most curious amongst us want to see what’s over the horizon. But we shouldn’t look too far to find happiness, it’s within us and around us, don’t expect it to find it in what you buy. I agree with many of the reasons put forward for unhappiness here, we can be conscious of those but I’m not expecting economic growth to solve them. But without progress we wouldn’t live as long or have as many options to maximise our experiences in this life. That’s good enough for me, money isn’t everything but taking it away from me i.e. with taxes definitely makes me less happy. I travel the world, lucky me, I find in many poor countries people seem happy but I’m not looking to swap places, I count my blessings and consider myself more fulfilled than those. Neither am I envious of Buffet or Gates, there’s no need to be, we don’t need that much money. What would make me unhappy is if my freedom and independence is put at risk by wealth disparity. That is a risk but I don’t consider it to be so today. Ultimately happiness is subjective, it’s a falsehood of science to treat it as objectively measured. Wealth is more objectively measured, let’s not miss the point of life by conflating the two.