[Induane]

Relentless striving without any kind of real meaning isn't healthy. Even people who aren't deeply Christian in the religious sense are still inherited of much of the values. I.E. people must prove their value via an extraordinary work ethic.

[justonceokay]

I would argue that individualism is the root, more than the work ethic. I’m someone with a 50th percentile work ethic but a 99th percentile focus on community. I only have so much energy, but I make sure I reserve a good portion of it (say, at least 30%) on acts that have no “direct” benefit to me at all. Hosting a party and not worrying if the invitee’s contributions are equitable. Paying a nephews rent for a month so he can travel. Mowing the yard for a neighbor in need. Buying presents for people I see 2x a year. Calling up a distant friend just to remind them how much I like them.

Friendship and community are harder work than your job, because no one makes you do it. It pays off in peculiar ways many years later, if ever at all. It’s senseless effort, but only figuratively. The returns I get are incalculable, but only literally.

[foobar_______]

well said. Thanks for this comment. I am trying to be more like this.

[ordinaryradical]

Christian orthodoxy begins with the assertion you cannot ever work hard enough to be made right with God but that your value is imputed by Christ’s death and never once earned.

See also: the imago dei.

What you’re describing is not “Christian values” but the famed “Protestant work ethic,” a product of puritan immigrants fleeing European discrimination. That ethic is Christian in source but when divorced from the knowledge that God makes you worthy—not your productivity— you begin the long slide into hustle culture, greed, and other current miseries.

[bugglebeetle]

As Benjamin noted, “Christianity’s history is essentially that of its parasite […] capitalism.”

[ARandomerDude]

> people must prove their value via an extraordinary work ethic

Ironically, this is the literal opposite of Christianity. Christianity in a nutshell is "Jesus saves people because we are incapable of saving ourselves."

[AnimalMuppet]

In addition, people have intrinsic worth/value/identity because they are made in the image of God.

So, yeah. "Must earn their worth" may sound "Christian", but it's not Christianity.

[GetTheFacts]

>So, yeah. "Must earn their worth" may sound "Christian", but it's not Christianity.

Blasphemer! That's the primary tenet of the "Prosperity Gospel"[0], the primary form of Christianity in the US.

For shame! You will burn in hell for that. Unless you donate $100,000.00 to Creflo Dollar[1] right now!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creflo_Dollar

[tuna74]

Mules are cheaper as well if you don't have coal readily available.

[giardini]

Thanks for the suggestion! I've always wanted to own a mule and now you've provided me with a justification!

[spwa4]

Given where the world is headed, I'm starting to see the wisdom in that more and more.

[newsoftheday]

You're understanding falls far short.

Jesus saves us from the final end destruction, and helps us who believe on him through our daily lives. Some people get along fine without religion. What happens to them when the final destruction (from God, not man) gets here depends on whether these people continue to do it all on their own and choose to not believe; or whether they choose to let him in and believe. In either case, Jesus is about the final end of humans which will be done by God and is outside our control, even outside Jesus' control; that is what Christianity is about.

[nemomarx]

something being within gods control but not within Jesus is a little heretical, to my understanding of the Trinity. You might want to talk through that with your priest sometime?

[newsoftheday]

Jesus himself said he does not know when God will end the world. That is what I was referring to.

[hackable_sand]

No, that is the malformed belief chain of doomsday cultists.

[metalliqaz]

I wouldn't call that 'Christian'. The 'extraordinary work ethic' exists in Japan, too. Not very Christian over there.

[JKCalhoun]

Or, not a popular opinion, as a country we had a kind of solidarity when things were universally tough. For me (I'm old enough) that was the 1970's with inflation, the Iran hostage situation… During that Bicentennial I remember the country pulling together more.

[intended]

Striving without meaning being unhealthy is always true. As per the article, for some reason, Americans became unhappy across all groupings, post 2020.

Its possible that some sub groups of people learned that work from home gave them more meaning than the rat race. For it to be true across the board? That creates a huge burden of proof.

[amunozo]

More Protestant than Christian.

[reactordev]

I think that’s only one aspect, the other is the economics make it so you have to be extraordinary to live ordinary.

[justonceokay]

If that’s how you feel then you might have an unreasonable standard. People you might consider to be living in abject poverty might not be so downtrodden as you suspect. Even though there are extreme downsides and externalities to being relatively poor, being lonely is not one of them.

[bluefirebrand]

> People you might consider to be living in abject poverty might not be so downtrodden as you suspect

This is true, until they have a medical emergency that breaks them because they can't afford it, or the furnace in their house breaks, or they are reno-evicted by their landlord, or their car breaks down or whatever

You're broadly right that money doesn't exactly buy happiness, but it does prevent or mitigate a lot of unhappiness

[reactordev]

I don't think I do when the average low-income worker makes $<40k/yr but the income required to live in a 1-bedroom apartment is $58k/yr.