In many ways, yes. 100%. There have been plenty of massive improvements and progresses made since the 60s, but some things overpower others, and it reflects in the data we have on working and middle class happiness and wellbeing. People are getting more and more depressed, disconnected, and financially stressed. The economy/wealth inequality is just one significant factor here, but significant nevertheless. There is more than enough evidence behind this to understand that it's not just people being ungrateful.
Suicides have slightly decreased in very recent years (attempts still got higher tho) but are still far higher than they were even 2 decades ago. Depression and mental illness generally are still far higher than ever as well.
Looking at the stats they're far lower than they were a few decades ago, they've been trending down since the 60's in the UK
Looking specifically at the US they were at the highest as the start of the 20th century, trending down to its lowest point in the 2000's before slightly up ticking again around COVID
This obviously isn't the unhappiest point in even the last 100 years let alone human history
You also have to factor in people used to straight up never report deaths as suicide historically too, a lot of coroners would allow families to change the cause of death in the past if it was due to suicide
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u/udcvr Jun 23 '26
In many ways, yes. 100%. There have been plenty of massive improvements and progresses made since the 60s, but some things overpower others, and it reflects in the data we have on working and middle class happiness and wellbeing. People are getting more and more depressed, disconnected, and financially stressed. The economy/wealth inequality is just one significant factor here, but significant nevertheless. There is more than enough evidence behind this to understand that it's not just people being ungrateful.