**Submission Statement:** 2020 saw a major decline in happiness amongst Americans, which remained relatively steady for the previous 50 years. Despite overall economic indicators remaining strong relative to happiness, the divergence between the two is vast. The article suggests that the issues is a decoupling between material prosperity and subjective well-being. The marginal utility of increased wealth is flattened while non-economic factors like social isolation, civic distrust, and technological advances have an increased impact. It suggests that wealth / prosperity is not the primary driver of happiness, but how the increased prosperity isn’t translating into a direct quality of life improvement.
2Lore2Law on
Because money can’t buy you happiness, just a prettier misery
Ah_Ca_Iraa on
Michael Jordan and I have a combined 6 NBA championships, so why are 50% of us depressed?
MastodonParking9080 on
Prolonged demoralization for a decade. No kidding, just go read a Wired magazine from 2012 compared to today and the difference is stark, its just being a constant barrage of identity politics and the crimes of colonialism for a decade.
TF_dia on
Because the grass is always greener.
You may be richer than the people living in other continent. But are you richer than your next door neighbor? Richer than your favorite Instagram influencer?
TactileTom on
Phones, I think
JeromesNiece on
I dislike how people view the posting of an article with a question in the title as an invitation to react to that question without having read the article
TheUooh on
Wonder what happened in 2020… can’t seem to remember so far back…
>The simplest explanation I can offer is this: As a cultural-political force, the 2020 pandemic never ended.
9 Comments
**Submission Statement:** 2020 saw a major decline in happiness amongst Americans, which remained relatively steady for the previous 50 years. Despite overall economic indicators remaining strong relative to happiness, the divergence between the two is vast. The article suggests that the issues is a decoupling between material prosperity and subjective well-being. The marginal utility of increased wealth is flattened while non-economic factors like social isolation, civic distrust, and technological advances have an increased impact. It suggests that wealth / prosperity is not the primary driver of happiness, but how the increased prosperity isn’t translating into a direct quality of life improvement.
Because money can’t buy you happiness, just a prettier misery
Michael Jordan and I have a combined 6 NBA championships, so why are 50% of us depressed?
Prolonged demoralization for a decade. No kidding, just go read a Wired magazine from 2012 compared to today and the difference is stark, its just being a constant barrage of identity politics and the crimes of colonialism for a decade.
Because the grass is always greener.
You may be richer than the people living in other continent. But are you richer than your next door neighbor? Richer than your favorite Instagram influencer?
Phones, I think
I dislike how people view the posting of an article with a question in the title as an invitation to react to that question without having read the article
Wonder what happened in 2020… can’t seem to remember so far back…
>The simplest explanation I can offer is this: As a cultural-political force, the 2020 pandemic never ended.
Oh right
Let me work from home again god damn it.