Perhaps People Are Unhappy Because Everything Is So Great
Certainly a counter-conventional wisdom take
Supposedly people are less happy today than compared to how they were in the past. I say “supposedly” because basically all of the happiness research is suspect if not hot garbage.
But let’s charitably assume for the moment some degree to which these findings are true. Perhaps this is because it was only recently that we have earned the right, if you will, to dream. Or more correctly stated, we only recently in the past give or take hundred years have had the ability to reasonably be optimistic about the future. Now that we are able to be optimistic, it is too easy to see how bad things were, still are, and might continue to be for some time. We haven’t had enough time to evolve into a natural mindset that appreciates what we have achieved while now knowing it could be so much better.
How many kids in the middle ages dreamed of growing up to be an astronaut? How many kids in the 1600s thought they could become king or queen? I bet none of them expected to be choosing in adulthood between being a pilot and being a fireman—where the latter was glamorous and heroic, rather than absolutely essential and not really a paid profession.
People who were born in the early 1900s in what today is called the developed world saw an astronomical rise in wealth. They also witnessed obvious technological advancements and tremendous increases in middle class capabilities. All this despite living through WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, and many other lesser but still very bad events.
Children of the early 1900s and their children grew up in very special times compared to the rest of human history. A world of possibilities and dreams were continually being opened to them.
In most cases the dreams didn’t come true, but that was inevitable. We are in trouble if our imaginations stop outrunning our capabilities.
In many ways our advancements became more subtle, but that too was inevitable. We get to do indoor plumbing once. Everything is subject to the law of diminishing returns.
Part of the perception of less happiness is an inability to appreciate how good we got it. That is a lesson from this podcast from Andrew Heaton, which was the inspiration for this post. I want to double link to it so as to make sure you give it a listen as it is a very nice rundown of how much better life is today: The Political Orphanage (Bonus: Your Life Is Way Better Than King Louis XVI's)
I think beyond lack of appreciation is this other cause—life is very, very, very good today and getting better despite [insert here every bad trend in the world] yet the improvements are not keeping up with our (fortunately) growing desire for a better world still. Optimism looked dumb for thousands of years. Then kind of all of a sudden it became the correct disposition. Now as we are settling in to successive generations who are living in this age of optimism, we are getting a bit too comfortable, or possibly complacent, about how good things are versus how they “should” be. It is not just that we don’t and can’t quite appreciate it. It is also that we don’t understand what it means to be satisfied while still yearning.
The post is referencing those who are subjects of the happiness research--namely wealthy, first-world people. For those still in extreme poverty as well as the large number of people who have very fortunately exited extreme poverty in the past couple decades, they would very likely not be a part of the paradox of improvement with surveyed lower happiness. They are typically not surveyed, and when they are, they very much appreciate how life is obviously getting better.
Happiness is an incomplete concept for sure. It is also not only measured by material wealth, but that is a very good proxy to a first approximation.
For whom is this written? Do you think your take applies to the 700 million-ish people living in extreme poverty? Would it apply to the 6,400 people who died this year in the Somali civil war? The 9,000 dead in Maghreb? Assuming those people are/were less happy than say you, would it be because they are failing to appreciate how good they got it? Or, maybe they have/had become complacent? Is it not relative? Is it possible that there might be legitimate reasons for people reporting to be less happy? Or, is a lower level of happiness simply a matter of one not understanding and appreciating how lucky they are to live during a time when they can possess a really cool apple watch that King Louis XVI missed out on? Is it possible that happiness isn't determined by how good some people got it? Is it possible that it's more complicated and specific to individual perception and relative circumstances? If I'm starving under a bridge, does it matter to me that some people with the resources and time to blog and podcast from the comfort of their executive homes believe that my life is better than it would have been 100 years ago? Perhaps not.