Suffering has a lot to do with the current psychological state of our minds and how our surroundings affect our subjective perception. You are thinking in term

Suffering has a lot to do with the current psychological state of our minds and how our surroundings affect our subjective perception. You are thinking in terms of materialistic well-being which plays only a part of the whole well-being we can achieve. The thing is that right now, even if you are in the "comfort zone" of the society it doesn't mean you will feel happy, fulfilled and in a balanced state of mind, because we are all filled with those destructive/unbalanced parts of our "cultural DNA" that together with our subjective destructive/unbalanced behavior will make the whole life experience not that much fulfilling the way we know it can be. Particularly, i think our societies are "culturally sick" in a lot of areas and there's a lot of evidence of our downfall in those areas. I can bet with you that i life in a remote tribe in Africa for instance would feel much more fulfilling and happy than a life in our society surrounded with material comfort and tech gadgets that make our lives more bearable. I wonder if we are actually inclined to invent those stuff, because we feel miserable and we think that they will remedy this problem at least a little bit (guy invent a social network because he feel lonely). Sure, the answer is not to go back and live in tribes, but i wonder what we have lost in the way. This civilization where at the same time, we are so proud of, but is also the reason we will feel more sadness than happiness, because in the end our problem is not in how materially safe we are, but how contempt we feel with our current situation. Also lets not forget how about making more things, we ended up in a state where we need more things to feel happiness in our current cultural status quo. Wanting things and not being able to have them, is part of our misery, and we are always creating new things so people will have the urge to desire them. The paradox is that the material comfort gives you with one hand, and take with the other. On the other hand, i think we are having better lives, because we are becoming more civilized as a whole and more educated and sophisticated. The social sphere and how we relate to others is a key part to our happiness. How much tech and progress are helping us to achieve this? (and other possible side-effects that actually contribute to our mood balance)