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21 Signs Americans Are the Unhappiest People In the World (Video)

Friday, November 13, 2015 10:34

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(Before It's News)

In the first video below, Jason Silva freestyles his way into the complex systems of society, technology and human existence and discusses the truth and beauty of science in a way that makes it fun for the viewer. What’s not so fun is the topic he is exploring: Why are Americans so unhappy? Collectively, as a nation, we have more than most people on this planet could ever dream of, yet for whatever reason, Americans are NEVER content. It’s as if we’re designed to desire. Aristotle once said:

“It is of the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.”

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Michael Snyder, author of The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog fires off some shocking statistics about Americans today, compared with previous generations. At the conclusion of a laundry list of shocking statistics, Michael asks:

So why in the world is this happening?

We have one of the highest standards of living in the world and we are surrounded by massive amounts of entertainment.

Yet we are severely depressed.

And during the “happiest time of the year” we get even more depressed.

Clearly something has gone very wrong.

Even more entertainment is not going to fix us, and neither will more drugging.

So what will finally make us happy?

The second video may be a scene is from a fictional show, but at the same time it goes a long way toward answering why Americans are so unhappy. The scene is from the first 3 minutes of the first episode of HBO’s big hit titled, “The Newsroom.” In the clip, Jeff Daniels character is asked why he thinks America is the greatest country on the planet. Daniels character gives a sarcastic answer more than once, and his body language makes it quite clear he’d rather not answer the question, but the moderator keeps poking and prodding. Finally, Daniels character explodes into a tirade about why America is no longer the best country in the world. Its sad, but his speech is DEAD on.

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After realizing he just went postal, Jeff Daniels’s character tries to back peddle, and he says:

“It sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were and we never beat our chests.

We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men, we aspired to intelligence, we didn’t belittle it, it didn’t make us feel inferior.

We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election and we didn’t scare so easy. We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed, by great men, men who were revered. First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. Enough?”

Two things make the tirade particularly memorable, and very relevant to the question Michael Snyder asks about why Americans are so unhappy. First, Americans are pathetically uninformed. Americans are so clueless that most don’t have the slightest idea what one of the greatest documents ever written says, the U.S. Constitution, nor do they have any idea how our government operates, but those same people have no problem complaining because they don’t have what they want. The most telling line Daniels character says is:

“We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed, by great men, men who were revered.”

The sooner people stop getting their news from Twitter headlines, and educate themselves, not for a grade in school, but because they want to have knowledge, the better we’ll all be. That brings me to the second thing that makes the tirade so relevant to why Americans are so unhappy. As a country, we are fed so much propaganda, versus REAL information, but BECAUSE most people are so woefully uninformed, they don’t recognize it as propaganda. It comes in the form of “news” from Mainstream Media. If you’re told every day how great you are (as a country), and told how wonderful everything is (the economy is doing great, unemployment is only 5.1%… blah blah…), but you can’t feed your family, or you can’t get a job, then when peoples’ reality falls short of the expectations set, of course they are going to be depressed, or even angry.

In almost every link below, there is an article by Michael Snyder included, because he knows better than most what a devastating financial collapse is headed straight for America. He’e been warning about it for years. People NEED to be told the truth, not just about the economy, about everything. Then, those with the means to prepare for what is coming can do so, and those without the means can band together and pull one another up. We are a great people, that’s why the most powerful forces on the planet are working so hard to divide us, and as you can learn if you want to in a post titled, 10 Most Critical Things To Consider While Consuming Mainstream News, there is documented evidence that efforts to mislead and divide Americans began at least as early as 1921.

WAKE UP AMERICA!

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By Michael Snyder

How can we possibly be so miserably unhappy? For a nation that supposedly “has it all”, we sure are depressed. In America today, suicide rates are soaring, antidepressant use is skyrocketing and virtually every new survey that comes out shows that we are deeply dissatisfied about something. But we live at a time when there are more things to enjoy than ever before.

When I was growing up there was only a handful of television channels to choose from, but now there are hundreds. We have more movies than we could ever possibly watch, more books than we could ever possibly read, and the greatest video games ever made are at our fingertips. With all of the entertainment that surrounds us, you would think that Americans would be happier than ever before, and yet we continue to become even more depressed.

Everywhere I go, I see people that look like they have had the life completely sucked out of them. So why is this happening? The following are 21 signs that Americans are the unhappiest people in the entire world…

#1 A scientific study that was just released found that U.S. adults are becoming less happy over the years…

“Adults over 30 are less happy than their predecessors,” concludes a study published online Thursday in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, which examined happiness data from more than 50,000 adults, gleaned from the General Social Survey, carried out by NORC at the University of Chicago, a nonpartisan, independent research organization, which has collected information about American adults since 1972.

From 2010 to 2014, adults over 30 had an average happiness score of just 2.18, compared with 2.24 a decade ago. That’s significant considering happiness scores were measured on a tiny scale from just 1 to 3, with 1 being “not too happy” and 3 being “very happy.”

#2 Young people are also becoming increasingly depressed. Just check out what one study conducted at San Diego State University discovered…

Americans are more depressed now than they have been in decades, a recent study has found. San Diego State University (SDSU) psychology professor Jean M. Twenge analyzed data from nearly 7 million adolescents and adults from across the country and found that more people reported symptoms of depression — including sleeplessness and trouble concentrating — compared to the 1980s.

Twenge’s findings show that teenagers in the 2010s experience memory trouble 38 percent more often than their 1980s counterparts. Teens are also 74 percent more likely to have trouble sleeping and twice as likely to see a professional for mental health issues. College students in the study reported feeling overwhelmed by academic and personal demands 50 percent more often than their 1980s counterparts.

#3 Back in 1987, 61.1 percent of all Americans reported being happy at work. Today, 52.3 percent of all Americans say that they are unhappy at work.

#4 A different survey found that 70 percent of all Americans do not “feel engaged or inspired at their jobs”.

#5 One survey of 50-year-old men in the U.S. found that only 12 percent of them said that they were “very happy”.

#6 The number of Americans diagnosed with depression increases by about 20 percent each year.

#7 According to the New York Times, more than 30 million Americans take antidepressants.

#8 Doctors in the United States write more than 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants each year.

#9 The rate of antidepressant use among middle aged women is far higher than for the population as a whole. It is hard to believe, but right now one out of every four women in their 40s and 50s is taking an antidepressant medication.

#10 Compared to children in Europe, children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants.

#11 In America today, there are 60 million people that abuse alcohol and there are 22 million people that use illegal drugs.

#12 America has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.

#13 One recent poll found that 71 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction that things are going in this country.

#14 America has the highest divorce rate in the world by a wide margin.

#15 America has the highest percentage of one person households on the entire planet.

#16 100 years ago, 4.52 people were living in the average U.S. household, but now the average U.S. household only consists of 2.59 people.

#17 According to the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent of all American adults are married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all adults in the United States were married.

#18 The suicide rate in the United States is now the highest that it has been in 25 years.

#19 According to one absolutely shocking study, 22 military veterans kill themselves in the United States every single day.

#20 The suicide rate for Americans between the ages of 35 and 64 rose by close to 30 percent between 1999 and 2010. The number of Americans that are killed by suicide now exceeds the number of Americans that die as a result of automobile accidents every year.

#21 The rate of suicide is highest during the holidays that come at the end of the year, and 45 percent of all Americans say that they dread the Christmas season. The following comes from a Psychology Today article…

We are told that Christmas, for Christians, should be the happiest time of year, an opportunity to be joyful and grateful with family, friends and colleagues. Yet, according to the National Institute of Health, Christmas is the time of year that people experience the highest incidence of depression. Hospitals and police forces report the highest incidences of suicide and attempted suicide. Psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals report a significant increase in patients complaining about depression. One North American survey reported that 45% of respondents dreaded the festive season.

So why in the world is this happening?

We have one of the highest standards of living in the world and we are surrounded by massive amounts of entertainment.

Yet we are severely depressed.

And during the “happiest time of the year” we get even more depressed.

Clearly something has gone very wrong.

Even more entertainment is not going to fix us, and neither will more drugging.

So what will finally make us happy?