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I liked this essay, but it's also important to point out that GDP is very strongly correlated with health outcomes like life expectancy. It might be that we are

by sgentle 12y ago

I liked this essay, but it's also important to point out that GDP is very strongly correlated with health outcomes like life expectancy. It might be that we are starving our souls, but let's not forget about the fairly serious consequences of starving our bodies. I don't mean to say that I disagree with the conclusion, just that I think the historical context is missing something. We didn't become productive out of greed, we became productive out of hunger. That attitude has run its course, absolutely, and we need to ask: we're not hungry anymore, so what now? But let's not denigrate how we got here on the assumption that it was never a good idea. We might have climbed past the lowest rungs of the ladder, but that doesn't mean we didn't need them. Indeed, there are many who still do.

6t6t6 12y ago
Then how you explain the fact that USA has one of the lowest life expectancy among the developed world? I think that what the author tries to explain is that, in some places, societies have gone too far in the seek of productiveness and, ironically, people there is less happy and healthy. I guess finding the good balance is more important than trying to be the number one.
- quonn 12y ago
  Why is this downvoted? Given that the US is as economically powerful as it is, why _is_ life expectancy lower [0], compared to other _developed_ nations? Check out Canada, Australia, Japan and West-Europe on the map. [0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Life_Expectancy_2011_CIA_World_Factbook.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Life_Exp...
  - runj__ 12y ago
    The US is a big country, it's incredibly diverse. Comparing the US as a whole to other countries is not really fair. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_life_expectancy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_life_exp... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_capita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_... But we can of course all pick our own statistics to fit our standpoint. But it's important to keep in mind that the US can be a bit of an edge case.

by sgentle 12y ago

6t6t6 12y ago

Then how you explain the fact that USA has one of the lowest life expectancy among the developed world? I think that what the author tries to explain is that, in some places, societies have gone too far in the seek of productiveness and, ironically, people there is less happy and healthy. I guess finding the good balance is more important than trying to be the number one.

quonn 12y ago
Why is this downvoted? Given that the US is as economically powerful as it is, why _is_ life expectancy lower [0], compared to other _developed_ nations? Check out Canada, Australia, Japan and West-Europe on the map. [0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Life_Expectancy_2011_CIA_World_Factbook.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Life_Exp...
- runj__ 12y ago
  The US is a big country, it's incredibly diverse. Comparing the US as a whole to other countries is not really fair. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_life_expectancy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_life_exp... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_capita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_... But we can of course all pick our own statistics to fit our standpoint. But it's important to keep in mind that the US can be a bit of an edge case.