[littletimmy]

How much of this comes at a cost of people being unhappier?

Back in the time of hunter gatherers, humans "worked" for a few hours a day. The rest of the time was spent socializing and in leisure. It is fair to say they were happier compared to, let's say, an African American debt-laden minimum wage worker in the US today.

Do we really need economic growth?

[a_c_s]

Are parents for whom 1/3 of their children die as infants happier than those with children who live to adulthood?

(Modern USA infant mortality is less than 0.6%)

[codingdave]

Loss and grief are part of life. Your parents will die. Your grandparents as well. You either die young or live long enough to see some of your own generation die before you. If you are really "lucky", you see all of your friends die.

Death is a part of life. Everyone hopes that they outlive all their children, but even if you do not, tragedies during your life do not mean that your entire life was unhappy.

[D-Coder]

We're not measuring this as a binary value happy/unhappy. Not all losses are equal. Your children dying before you is worse than most other losses.

[littletimmy]

In our culture. That might not be the case in every culture. Some cultures even practiced infanticide, others practiced child sacrifice. Surely it cannot universally be the worst thing or such practices could never exist.

[adamc]

Well, except that people got sick and had very limited medical treatments, and their lifespans were shorter. How do you weight that?

Also, how do you weight the absence of toys and creature comforts?

[littletimmy]

The point about toys and creature comforts is hardly important enough to address. Do you honestly think kids are happier with a motorized car than they are with a hand-stitched doll?

Your point about people being sick is valid, but not to the extent that you think. Firstly, it is not wise to suggest that hunter-gatherers were physically worse off than us. They got a lot of exercise, and were in all likelihood better physically. Secondly, the shorter lifespans statistic is an artifact of increased childhood mortality. Once you discount the child mortality, they had lifespans very similar to ours. Without all the diseases of affluence that we have, mind you (diabetes, for example).

[yourepowerless]

Taking away a kids phone and giving him a doll will likely elicit a violent response, but cool on you to decide what brings people happiness.

[huac]

That's inane. You'd be happy with a million dollars in your bank account but a billionaire would be pissed in the same situation.

I think it's important to look at war, disease, hunger, and displacement, in some order.