> Things were very rough for most of history, everyone was constantly stressed to keep up with their minimal necessities to live, it was not in any way relaxed.

> Things were very rough for most of history, everyone was constantly stressed to keep up with their minimal necessities to live, it was not in any way relaxed. I have heard this argument many times before but it is mostly not true. Most village farmers do lead a more relaxed and relatively stress-free life. You just need to visit/observe/interact with them to see the difference. The main reason is the difference between Acute Stress vs. Chronic Stress. Chronic Stress has what has exploded exponentially in urban areas after the Industrial Revolution and the current IT Industry has made it even worse. There are just too many things to juggle all the time each of which has a deadline with consequences (because process and efficiency) however trivial it might be in the larger scheme of things. The farmer doesn't have that many things to worry over and so only has episodic bursts of Acute Stress over truly consequential things the management of which is easier. Another related point is that the farmer does live closer and more entwined with Nature than urban folks and this has been shown to be better for psychological health. We are evolved to interact with Nature and not isolate ourselves in a concrete jungle and grey cubicles.