U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs
In the U.S., a new high of 29.0% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in their lifetime, and 17.8% currently have or are being treated for it.
news.gallup.com
After 12-15k gdp per capita, there’s diminishing returns on satisfaction with COL vs wage growth. High income societies do not experience material happiness as well as that middle income sweet spot (as long as COL remains fairly cheap).
Current economic model is growth growth growth through consumption, striving for higher wages to buy more goods etc, but what if it doesn’t have to be? What if society could rest at $10-15k per capita and the rest of our economic energy went into political/megaprojects?
Most of the world can’t/doesn’t want the East Asian/Protestant work ethic. Most people are ‘Latin belt’ in lifestyle. Dolce vita, keyif, otium. What we perceive as their failure to grow may simply be that they don’t want to grow more. Satisfaction declines with more growth.
