[shafyy]

I've heard this book cited many times, and people saying that the "bad" things we see are just the news cycles and very temporary, and in general we're better off (e.g. "The richest person has the same iPhone as you and uses the same kind of toilet").

Sure, some things are "objectively" better, like lower child mortality and so on. But happiness is so subjective. It's entirely possible that when we were hunter gatherers, the average person was happier, even though child mortality and life expectancy were considerably lower.

It's easy to think that access to high tech like iPhones and a toilet to shit in makes people happy, but I don't think this is the case.

[fragmede]

Not to nitpick, but if you haven't used a $700 bidet toilet, no, rich people actually do have a better kind of toilet. $700 isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things, but heated seats are niiice.

[wincy]

I bought myself one of these fabled toilet seats about six years back and yes, it’s cured all the unpleasant health issues I had previously assumed were just a sad inevitability of having a butt.

Also sitting on a cold toilet seat is now particularly jarring. What a luxury! I highly recommend!

[rubyn00bie]

Go without a toilet, a refrigerator, or clean water for a year and tell me how happy you are…

I think this idealization of “hunter gatherer” society is absolutely insane. It’s like arguing the moon is made of cheese. People were likely not happy being hungry, scared, and afraid most of fucking the time.

[rokhayakebe]

They could have been equally happy or happier because they did not have this reference or refrigeration or clean water.

For all we know when people start to travel cross continent in minutes, press a button and have instant steak printed, we cannot assume they will be happier than everyone alive today. They will have their own set of issues to weight them down. If nothing, boredom.

[pixl97]

I'm going to assume that the person that thinks their least happy is one of the following.

A person that had 'happiness' and now is in a less secure position.

A person surrounded by happy people, but doesn't feel that way themselves.

Relative privation does weird things to people.