[sinecure]

This is essentially what Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber) theorized and wrote about in his manifesto, that industrialization and its abundance of comforts and options have destroyed human happiness and that we would all be better off if we lived simple hunter gatherer lives and knew nothing of modernity or technology. That the hunter who catches a deer and feeds his tribe is immensely more happy and fulfilled than the stock broker who navigates high finance and city life, but can't seem to get that promotion or afford that vacation house his boss has.

Essentially the awareness of everyone else's lifestyle and prosperity, amplified by the advent of print newspaper and now social media, is the key destroyer of joy.

The peasant works his farm and feeds his family and raises his kids. He knows he will not become king. He barely knows what the king's lifestyle is. In modern America we are blasted with thousands of kingly lifestyles 24/7 and are constantly asked, why aren't we living like that? Why do I have to work? Why can't I date the supermodel? Why do I have to struggle with rent?

Our minds have not evolved to deal with this super-stimulus nor the self comparison of endless idealized lifestyles we cannot all realistically achieve.