I wish people in tech (in the US anyway) would stop making this particular claim > But software engineers are more likely to have mental health problems than t

I wish people in tech (in the US anyway) would stop making this particular claim > But software engineers are more likely to have mental health problems than those who perform mechanical labor, and I think our problem-oriented world-view has something to do with that. I've heard this said before, and as someone with lifelong mental illness, and having spent a solid decade and a half of my life in low-wage "mechanical labor" roles prior to becoming a well-paid software engineer, I've always found this assertion to be very, very bizarre, and extremely out of touch. It's so clearly wrong given just a little bit of thought or research. I don't want to minimize anyone's mental health situation. Techies suffer from mental illness too, it's true. But the reality is that, at least for most people suffering from mental illness, having your agency restricted exacerbates symptoms. And nothing restricts your agency like being low income. And to be sure, most (certainly not all) people in "mechanical labor" professions are low income. When you're low income, you're forced to work jobs where you have to tolerate abuse from customers and managers, your work is largely not valued because you're completely fungible so you are treated like shit, and in some cases you have to endure operational abuse/humiliation like having to ask permission to use the bathroom. You have to endure long commutes, unpredictable schedules that change from week to week, and unstable/dangerous living conditions. And that's hardly the half of it. That's not even to mention that being low income in the United States means it's somewhere between extremely challenging and impossible to 1. afford therapy/mental healthcare, 2. get time off from your job to go to therapy/psychiatric sessions. Anyway, I'm glad that a source was finally cited this time. The source cited in turn cites this source http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/v3(2)/Version-2/G0322052056.pdf http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/v3(2)/Version-2/G0322052056.pdf Namely, an Indian paper which compares software developers with railway laborers and hospitality workers in India. I think it's pretty obvious that the findings here can't be safely generalized to the US -- there are serious economic differences and not to mention cultural differences at play here. Anyway, I think it's an attractive fantasy among American engineers that low-waged workers are happy and uncomplicated and untormented by the same demons that torture the more sophisticated souls that sling code for a living. But it's absolute bullshit, and doing a small amount of research on this (not to mention talking to low income folks in your life about mental health) will show you that it's dead wrong.