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It has apparently escaped the notice of the authors of this article that in 2022 we had just begun to recover from a once-in-a-century global pandemic that last
by lisper 2y ago
It has apparently escaped the notice of the authors of this article that in 2022 we had just begun to recover from a once-in-a-century global pandemic that lasted two years, killed eight million people (so 30% more than the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust), left countless thousands living with debilitating long-term symptoms, and permanently deprived an entire cohort of once-in-a-lifetime formative experiences, like graduating high school or going to the prom, and also left them with vastly greater uncertainty about their future financial prospects. Furthermore, if you are 17, then all of that represents a much higher percentage of your conscious experience than if you're 50 or 70, so why on earth would anyone be surprised that 17-year-olds in 2022 report lower life satisfaction than 17-year-olds from 2005-2018?
Furthermore, the rest of the variation is highly questionable. The vertical scale on the graph is compressed. The actual difference in the alleged U is only about 0.1, or 3% of the absolute scale value of 3.3. That is a tiny difference. I'd frankly be surprised if it was even statistically significant, let alone indicative of an actual underlying systemic change.
So I'm calling shenanigans here.
UPDATE: I searched for "pandemic" rather than "COVID" so I missed this:
> Later, as he put it, he “thought that everything was COVID.” Now, Blanchflower says, he sees that was an error. “COVID extended trends that had existed before,” he says.
But the data presented do not support this conclusion at all. There are no "trends that had existed before" in the data since all pre-covid data is grouped together in a single data set.
- beaglesss 2y agoAlso consider the fatality rate for youth was low compared to elderly, so it must have looked like we threw their education and recreation in the wood chipper for grandma, when normally at least in modern times sacrifices are made by adults to the children not the other way around.
- szundi 2y agoHaving a parent die is a blow as well I assume, so it was in their interest not to bring the virus home.
- wredue 2y agoYeah okay. Elders go to war, or clean up nuclear disasters to save youth from it. Your hot take: Kill granny so I can get my nails done and eat at a restaurant.
- beaglesss 2y agoI doubt my under 5 year old knew much beyond she couldn't as easily socialize at a point in time where it was foundational. Sure she'd have been upset if granny died but I don't think the sacrifice calculus of that registered for her level of happiness, all she really understood was being couped up a bit more than she might have otherwise been. Whether anything we did actually saved grandma is of course speculative.
- wredue 2y agoIt isn’t “speculative”. This is, in fact, measurable. Countries with worse action resulted in higher deaths. More people having access to the care they needed in hospitals undoubtedly saved lives. Keep drinking that rich people coolaide though. One day, you’ll definitely be rich.
- Der_Einzige 2y agoLt governor of Texas basically said this as an old guy and his old voters who voted for him loved it! If old people want to vote for the day of the pillow, why stop them?
- wredue 2y agoWell. Yeah. They thought Covid was funny while blue states were disproportionately impacted early on. Then blue states took action while red one did not. Red states all of a sudden dominated per capita impact. Only when their voters were dropping like flies did they suddenly about face. Except that they already latched on to conspiracy theory so swinging the base was difficult. There are still people (op) who lie and state that lockdown did nothing, even after their god emperor did a 180. This is why latching on to fake news and conspiracy to rile people up is dangerous.
- ascorbic 2y agoFrom TFA > Later, as he put it, he “thought that everything was COVID.” Now, Blanchflower says, he sees that was an error. “COVID extended trends that had existed before,” he says.
- lisper 2y agoI searched for "pandemic" rather than "covid" to see if this had been considered, but the data presented do not support the claim that "COVID extended trends that had existed before".