The ugly reasons we're not getting happier

I'm Andres Acevedo and this is The Market Exit. Across the globe, we're getting richer and richer. But, why are we not feeling better? In this short documentary, I talk with award-winning author and professor of sociology Roland Paulsen about the strange fact that mental health problems seems to increase as wealth increases. Our conversation spans from the conventional narrative around growth that you often hear from people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to the WHO's World Mental Health Survey and 7 potential explanations for why mental disorder seems to be increasing. Our discussion is based on Roland's book What If: The New Age of Anxiety.
📺 Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction - The conventional narrative about growth
02:29 Chapter 1 - Are we getting happier?
05:16 Chapter 2 - Are we becoming sicker mentally?
10:50 Chapter 3 - Possible explanations
17:18 Conclusion - So what should we do?
18:02 Thank You for Your Support
📣 If you've found value in this video, show your support by giving it a LIKE, leaving a COMMENT, and SHARING it with friends. Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to The Market Exit on KZbin and click the 🔔 icon for notifications of future videos.
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Who am I?
I’m Andres Acevedo, a lawyer who make short documentaries about law, economics and fairness for my own channel, The Market Exit. You can help me make videos for The Market Exit by becoming a Patreon. Or, if you live in Sweden, you can Swish me a donation on 123-333 34 65.
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💌 Email: [e-mail]
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#mentalhealth #anxiety #depression

[@petteringemarsson6257]

Nya favoritkanalen på KZbin!

[@matthennessey6223]

I love the production quality of your videos! Great video and great topic.

[@scratcharmstrong]

top quality!!!

[@suckmyartauds]

I just wanna say Andres, the passion you display for production and editing is so beautiful! Every video gets better

[@alexandraperezdeagreda326]

Very interesting!! This is some high quality, high value stuff! The seven explanations are brilliant, very well researched, *and* rendered/delivered. I'm very glad I just discovered your channel; I subscribed, barely two minutes into the video! The explanations discussed here, gave me an idea; Put together/in correlation, they made me see an eightth, possible explanation...: That maybe, the very lack of "hardship", and focus on greater economic & societal "advancement" (i.e.: further eradicating hardship, in profit of bolstering general "comfort" & "safety") in the "first world"/developed nations, could be cocooning us into purposeless, isolating, overprotective, "bubbles", effectively rendering us similar to overprotected, inexperienced & fearful, highly reactive children...feeling evermore "alone", helpless & incapacitated, in the face of an ever-increasing, global wall of "threats" - thanks to the media... Whereas, the general state of life in developing nations, with its higher incidence of hardship, lesser economic disparity, greater reliance on human connections, & lesser focus/availability, or relevance of "global media horrors" - seemingly closer/more akin to an "older" way of life -, may, in fact, render the people, generally more "used to", desensitized, & also feeling more *able* to deal with the kind of lives they face... I mean; to me, the differences seem to indicate, that the greater incidence of imminent risks to one's life would not only, likely, plant one firmly "in the now" (mentally & emotionnally), but this might also set one "on a par" with some of the more dramatic global news - making it that much *less* shocking -, as well as, finally, offering one the proverbial "backbone" of greater social interconnectivity, to better "weather the storms"/ills and issues, that befall said populations... Effectively turning them into much more "now-focused", less reactive, & generally more "able-feeling" people - which is funny, because, as I'm typing this, I feel like calling them "adults" -...no? Just for clarification; I do mean, just as in the video, on a global scale, as a "macro-view" of global, societal trends. ... Am I the only one to see the possibility of that currently playing out, in our world? Or am I just possibly, a bit *too* critical, lol?!😅🤦🏻‍♀️

[@alexandraperezdeagreda326]

Edit: To readers; Sorry about the wordiness.🙏 I just naturally tend to be quite passionate about such subjects.☝️🤔🤓

[@TheMarketExit]

Thanks for you comment! Maybe you have a point. Do you agree with Steven Pinker when he writes that: "a modicum of anxiety may be the price we pay for the uncertainty of freedom."?

[@halsokampen3600]

Another great video och relevant topic!

[@familjenwestin5668]

Wow Andres, det är såå bra👏🏻

[@dinglshingle]

hope you grow big on YT

[@KoalaKuddle]

A logarithmic transformation or logit function is not a statistical "trick." It is in fact very common and for problems that lie in a range from 0 to 1 it actually makes a lot of sense. Transformations are not tricks; not all relationships are linear. Another thing that i noticed was that there was a lot of variance in the graphs which suggests that whatever the relationship it is quite weak at all income levels. Also, while I do not think it is a problem in this case, a very common trap people fall into is looking at two things increasing or decreasing over time and immediately assuming a relationship. Regardless, still a great video and I think you still get a lot of things right.

[@Xizoc-tl]

Great comment. I also think is quite misleading to say the log transformation is a "trick". In this case happiness is capped at 10 so the log transformation makes sense.

[@alexanderpalmisano9565]

I think it's particularly pernicious in this case because we're talking about a book marketed towards a general audience, not a journal article. I don't think most people reading this book are going to check for things like this, or even know what a logarithmic scale means.

[@TheMarketExit]

Thanks for your comment! I do agree with you, in general. But I stand by calling this particular use of log scale a "trick", here's why: Using a logarithmic scale for comparing wealth across countries significantly underrepresents the vast disparities in wealth and this method becomes particularly misleading when presented to general audiences who may not realize the scale is compressed. As a result, the substantial economic differences, especially at the extreme ends of the wealth spectrum, seem less severe than they are in reality. I do recognize the value of log transformations in various statistical analyses, but I don't think it's appropriate in the case of wealth comparison. We need to be mindful what effects the choices of statistical representations may have for public perceptions. For instance, during the pandemic, one could argue that using logarithmic scales to visualize the spread of the virus would have been appropriate. However, most media outlets refrained from this approach. The reason is that logarithmic scales, which are not commonly understood by the general public, could have conveyed a misleading impression of the virus's rate of spread.

[@liisaeskelinen1909]

Thanks!

[@xxamulyaxx]

great video as always...👍

[@Ikbeneengeit]

What high quality. Subscribed.

[@heldstop5442]

In my personal case I feel this way just because of my work and working in general. I work 8 hours a day and I am so overloaded at work that when I come back home I can't do anything meaningful at all. I think I could deal with a job that didn't make any meaningful impact on anything if I could come back home and invest my energy into something that I love and find meaningful. I can't. I waste my time at work for the money that don't let me have any fulfilling life and the overload wastes my time after work too. I feel like everyone is trying to save money on everything to have a bit more for themselves driving everyone else around crazy. And I work in Finland where the working conditions are one of the best in the world. I can't imagine what people go through in less developed countries. This year I spent 2 month in total being on a sick leave because of depression and I feel like I may need the third one.

[@TheMarketExit]

Thank you for sharing. I'm sad to hear that. You are not alone. What industry do you work in?

[@heldstop5442]

@@TheMarketExit 🙏 I work in the healthcare but the experience isn't limited to the field imho. It's mostly always been like this no matter what the job title was. People around me feel the same way and I wonder what's wrong with the system. Thanks for your video, it helped to put some things into perspective.

[@xbox3Hero]

Strålande video!

[@TheMarketExit]

Tack! :)

[@Bobbbybags]

Can’t believe this only has a few thousand views. Amazing work dude!

[@TheMarketExit]

Thank you very much! You can help me out by sharing it with a friend or two :)

[@nfkb]

Thank you from France Andres, I appreciate your work. Le fond et la forme as we say in french !

[@TheMarketExit]

Merci beaucoup -- or tusen tack, as we say in Sweden :) That's very kind of you. Any suggestions on topics I should do videos about?

[@user-xu5vl5th9n]

Affluenza!

[@FriedZime]

Superintressant och välgjort!

[@williamselinder9138]

Skit bra! Subbed

[@physicsgran]

wow Andres, really cool channel you have!! Terrific and many greetings from Brazil!!!

[@TheMarketExit]

Hey, thanks! I hope Brazil is pleasant and I appreciate the kind greetings.

[@MagnusChirgwin]

Fantastic work ❤

[@TheMarketExit]

Thank you Magnus!

[@koyha5266]

This was awesome. You deserve more views! Shared!

[@paarradieschen2297]

What about another factor: By becoming richer, we receive the freedom to inspect us and our world more carefully - thereby coming into contact with fears that would otherwise be suppressed. In other words, we can afford to stop working (What may be called freedom of regression). However, I admit that it doesn't go well with the data that rich people seem happier overall. Anyways, I would be interested if someone wants to share thoughts about this.

[@palmcastle]

Important topic and very interesting insights (as always). One thing I thought of - do you believe there’s still a difference in how less rich countries talk openly about mental healt, and that there might be a lot of unknown numbers that affect the data in that sense?

[@nfkb]

no money no problem

[@ekaterinaderiushkina3052]

Thank you for a very nice video! Moving to Sweden from post soviet country, one of my cultural shock was how much everyone speaks about importance of gdp and economic growth, while there is no developed things for ordinary people. I mean, why do I care that Sweden is very rich, while I even can not buy food after 23.00 or order it to my place since delivery only exists in the city center. Banks are just a joke. Such things are just ridiculous. I think that one of the philosophical reasons is that people are crazy abut being exceptional and ambitious. I believe that we need to think and care more about each other.

[@TheMarketExit]

Thanks for your comment. I know, the more you think about it, the weirder you realize it is that we obsess so much over GDP and economic growth. You are right, we need to think and care more about each other. What would it take for that to happen?

[@nfkb]

@@TheMarketExit Teach empathy ? As a MD I took courses on communication and I have the feeling that these kind of softskills can be enhanced. Same as physical performance, we are not born the same but almost everyone can work on upgrading these skills.

[@Flkt42]

And why do you connect those mental issue numbers with economic and wealth instead of Online life and losses of inter-human connection?

[@Theassociate06]

hello there how do you edit your videos

[@TheMarketExit]

I use premiere pro for editing and after effects for graphcs :)

[@ryanconners3048]

"Hunter gatherers only had to plan a few days in the future" Thats simply not true, maybe im some regions, but many groups of hunter gatherers would migrate seasonally, and the planning and understanding of seasonality and when they needed to be where for the harvest season of certain food sources was vitally important long before agriculture. Agriculture and more sedentary lifestyles made seasonality even more important, since being a farmer is being in tune with the seasonality of your crops, and maintaining surplus in case the following years were less productive is only a little bit of a further time horizon than planning to travel hundreds of miles under a tight schedule for when you must arrive and then move to the next place.

[@Feliz_BroDad]

Impressive video! Life's but a fleeting moment on this earth. Let's shed needless worry, savoring nature and exploring diverse cultures. Traveling to embrace novelty signifies the luxury of leisure, a privilege reserved for the fortunate with means. Do you believe happiness is a goal or more of a by product? Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) once said “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” Aka. We need the freedom to be ourselves! In the West, We are not forced into unpleasant activities. We either allow them to come about or we encourage them to come about?

[@TheMarketExit]

Thanks for insightful thoughts. (Most days) I agree with the Buddhist view that pursuing happiness as a goal doesn't really make sense, as happiness comes and goes, regardless of our wealth. Why do you believe we keep striving for even more material wealth even though we already have more than we need?

[@nfkb]

@@TheMarketExit mimetic behaviors ?

[@bhatkat]

Isn't it a matter of developing greater appreciation for what we do know and have? Have made long term investments here that have paid off well indeed.

[@TheMarketExit]

Yes, I think research has shown that people can increase their overall wellbeing by fostering gratitude, so I think you're right!

[@user-yd2cu8kz6x]

Привіт з України! Цікаве відео

[@TheMarketExit]

Hello, thank you :)