You can't simply appeal to abstract statistics in order to show people that their pessimistic mental states are irrational. Happiness, contentedness, etc. can't be easily quantified. Telling someone that they're perceiving their own life circumstances wrongly will backfire
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Many have pointed to advances in cancer treatments, for example, as proof that life is obviously better today than it was 50 years ago. But people don't tend to measure the essential worthiness of their lives in terms of the availability of pharmaceuticals
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They tend to measure the worthiness of their lives in terms of personal fulfillment, economic stability, communal coherence, familial bonds, etc. As those things wither away, it's no surprise that they negatively rate their outlook, even as on paper certain metrics improve
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Chastising people for not sufficiently appreciating the wonders of technology is not going to make them any more content with their station in life. In anything, it'll just breed more resentment, as they (rightly) reject the arrogant premise that iPhones and Teslas = happiness
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Those with a pessimistic outlook are not going to be persuaded by statistics which bear little relevance to their own lived experience. They're not deluded, either. What's delusional is this hectoring attitude which rejects the agency of people to report on their own lives
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End of conversation
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Well statistically it's true. Life is FAR BETTER.
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It depends. Younger generations can’t raise a family on just one salary or struggle with two. Underpaid college graduates with debt that won’t be able to repay. How many people fail to stay afloat/safe/healthy choosing between paying healthcare,food,utility,or house bills, etc?
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One might also note that the very premise of the slogan “make America great again” is that things are worse than they used to be...
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+ the feeling/ knowing we are being ripped off w/ endless wars, our rights being trampled via the Patriot Act etc., us getting the short end of the stick via bailouts, country has high incarceration rates. Not saying all doom but addressing the question
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When neolibs hear 41% of Americans feel increasingly dissatisfied with their lives, their reaction is to provide empirical proof that the feelings are incorrect.
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Ask the grand parents. They know a thing or two. A lesson that was hard for me to learner.
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Excellent post
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The human condition has been consistently improving since the invention of writing, probably was before that too. It's just frustratingly slow in terms of one human lifespan. The ups and downs seem much more dramatic when they are closer to us on the timeline
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Well most observable objective metrics “life expectancy, technology, wars, etc” favor the today camp. Everything is relative though, “happier” probably tough to gauge.
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