120. Why Are Rich Countries So Unhappy?

No Stupid Questions

社会与文化

2022-10-23

37 分钟
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单集简介 ...

How does comparing yourself to others affect your well-being? What do you do when there’s no one left to blame? And should we all just move to Finland?
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  • That's the pot calling the kettle to tell them to get off the stove.

  • I'm Angela Duckworth.

  • I'm Steven Dubner, and you're listening to.

  • No stupid questions today on the show, why are the wealthiest nations so unhappy?

  • Wow.

  • More and more people are feeling like their days are all bad.

  • Angela, we recently did an episode called are you having a midlife crisis?

  • Do you have any recollection of that conversation?

  • I have a dim recollection that we discussed that we did.

  • And we discussed the history of the phenomenon, the characteristics of midlife crisis, and the prevalence.

  • You shared research which estimates that ten to 25% of the population, I believe that was in the US, experiences what we call a midlife crisis.

  • But wait, there's more.

  • Hold the phone.

  • As they say, several scholars, including an economist and several other social science researchers, have just published an NBER working paper.

  • NBER is the National Bureau of Economic Research, and for any listeners out there who like to read economic or related research, I strongly suggest you sign up for their weekly bulletins that give you usually 20 to 30 papers that are super fun to read.

  • And this one is simply called the midlife crisis.

  • And it presents some interesting data and makes some pretty provocative conclusions.

  • I'll read you a quick quote.

  • This paper documents a longitudinal crisis of midlife among the inhabitants of rich nations.

  • Yet middle aged citizens in our data sets are close to.