Comment by rluna828
12 hours ago
This has been proven wrong again and again. My grandparents were subsistence farmers. They had much less material wealth than any working class American and the vast majority of unhoused Americans. Yet, I can assure you that back then they were much more satisfied with life than the vast majority of working class and unhoused americans today. Second point, no amount of material wealth can compensate for severe mental illness. When people have severe mental illness, medical interventions must be performed against their diminished "free will." For those of you of American descent ask your parents or grand parents how their grand parents lived. I am certain you will be shocked at their extreme poverty and general hopefulness. Conclusion: once basic needs are met, the perception of "material" is more important than the material.
> This has been proven wrong again and again
[does not offer evidence]
> Yet, I can assure you ... they were much more satisfied with life than the vast majority of working class and unhoused americans today
How do you know this? How is this convincing to this audience?
> no amount of material wealth can compensate for severe mental illness
Are you asserting that mental illness occurred at lower rates in the past?
> I am certain you will be shocked at their extreme poverty and general hopefulness
There is no shortage of writing from the Great Depression expressing great hopelessness. The generation was popularly called the Lost Generation for decades by writers of the time.
We cannot conclusively know the overall happiness level of humanity at any time before the Industrial Revolution. But we can use general proxies, such as starvation rates, violent deaths, and child mortality. Those metrics have, by all knowable measures, improved by an order of magnitude after the Industrial Revolution when compared to all previous history.
My great grandparents could buy enough land to feed themselves for the equivalent of a few months salary. And they could live in whatever size building they wanted on it. Some amount of agency is a requirement for happiness, and when you have it you can be satisfied living under a rock.
I believe that happiness comes from being content, at least as a basis.
As long as person's basic needs are met and they are covered in the case of an emergency (for example, not going bankrupt because of cancer) they can be happy.
The barrier though is other people who make you unhappy. Your friends or family can cause you to compare your wealth to others.
The news and politicians can make you feel unhappy by telling you things are worse than they used to be and/or theyre getting worse.
Media can show you things you don't have and worse make you feel as though you would be happier, more excited, or more relaxed if you had these things.
Even though it's possible to ignore this, it's extremely difficult. We aren't as strong as we think when it comes to negative emotions.
nobody said happiness was proportional to dollars
woosh