Half of young adults had anxiety and depression in 2023

Very soon, the world's population is going to shrink and shrink. Then, the demand for goods and services is going to fall and fall. Capitalism requires endless growth to build up wealth. That won't be possible as the economy shrinks. Heck, there's a growing state of homelessness and inequality now, and the collapse hasn't even started yet.

 

I'm not sure that's true. I'm unaware of historical examples.

But...that's a bit off topic.

 

Seems logical. The future has massive uncertainty and reasons to be pessimistic. We have a completely dysfunctional government that is inept at tackling even easy problems. The less inept parts of our society are parasitic corporations. Some of the problems include climate change and AI. AI will, ultimately, vastly improve peoples' lives, but there will be pains along the way and today's youth will bear the brunt of that. What jobs will become less needed or obsolete? Almost anything could. What will people do for work? How will resources be allocated? Under the current paradigm, more wealth concentration seems likely. The meaninglessness that comes with delaying having a family, and increased dysfunction in dating, also contribute.

 

There is a theory that a lack of hope is driving anxiety and depression. When things are bad people look to the future for hope, but with skilled jobs disappearing every year and the West in decline that future hope is gone.

 

Although I would agree with you that the West is in decline, I'm not sure that registers at all on Gen Z. From there perspective, what is actually so bad, as far as their world is concerned? It seems that most of them fully expect to live and age in a world that is as rich as it is now, if not more so. I don't think they are really expecting to live in an apocalyptic hellscape

 

More living in a world with ever bigger divide between rich and poor. With machines protecting the mega rich.

 

That very depressing picture is I think and hope:
A collection of things that have gone wrong in different places in the past,
And at present here in the era of the Biden Administration,
And look like they could go wrong in the future.

PAST
The official propaganda used early in our conflict in Ukraine was
that Putin is the aggressor because he is just like Napoleon who
wanted to take over all of Europe, and we can tell because
just like Napoleon, Putin is 5 ft 7 inches tall,
just like Zelenskyy, and unlike Napoleon who was 5ft 5 or
5ft 5.5inches.

Another argument was that Putin is like Hitler who attacked
Russia, unlike the US and NATO which only threatened Russia
and made an army of 680,000 NATO trained and equipped
soldiers in Ukraine on the border of Russia.

 

PAST
The great thing about these 'just like' arguments is they make
the person telling them sound like he has knowledge of events
in the past, so they are good for the ego of the person telling them
and are of virtue signaling.

PRESENT
Where to people get the idea, and someone told me on Sunday
that if the US doesn't run the world, then there will be another
Pearl Harbor surprise attack.

This present day argument is also based on incorrect premises,
and was created to sell weapons and wars.

FUTURE
The reality is most countries are concerned with their own problems
and the few exceptions to that are the countries that are causing
other countries problems.

 

They may say these things, but I don't think they see themselves as being part of the downtrodden. There has been a big divide between rich and poor since the dawn of human civilization and I don't think it's caused this kind of psychological stress. This seems brand new; particularly among a group of people who live better than almost all of humanity until relatively recently.

 

Of the very few who are interested in international relations, I don't think any of them expect to bare the brunt of these wars. No one in the West seems to think they are going to be drafted and sent over to fight. That others in far away places are doing it doesn't seem to register among those engaged in performative politics.

 

But things are changing. Never before have we had machines and AI been able to do so many humans work. Before, a rich man still relied on well paid experts below him to make his wealth.
Now that is gone.

 

So...you think that half of young adults have depression and anxiety because of the fear of AI?

I'm not sure I can buy that.

 

I think there's the risk of any improved technology that it will allow
people to be replaced in employment, no longer needed.

It all depends on how the technology is used.

The overall effect of Neo-Liberalism has been to export manufacturing
jobs out of the country, and to pay to other countries less money to do
the same jobs, but also sending them money to do the work of course
and run up our national debt, and leave a lot of 'deplorables' with no
useful work.

 

We do need nationalism, not racism, but nationalism.
And no, that doesn't mean Hitler or Pearl Harbor or a whole host
of other bad things, it just makes sense.

Germany is fairly nationalist and had the world's biggest balance of
trade surplus for many years, until we blew up their Nordstream
pipeline, well, as they say, treat your enemies badly and your friends
even worse.

 

A bit oversimplistic. But I guess that was your aim.

 

I can only work with what you give me.

If you have a more nuanced take that would probably be a longer post.

 

How much of this is the Climate Religion of fear has put on them? We had far much more to fear in the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK honestly thought he may never see Jackie again!

I would agree, a Nation without God is scary!

 

Sorry you missed the point so badly, never mind.

 

The surveys of young people show its lack of money and future prospects that most effect them. House prices and lack of promotion opportunities lead to a feeling of no future in a way us older folks never imagined.

 

I know a lot of young people feel they are entitled to a 6 figure job and will not settle for less. They will not entertain the idea of an "entry level job" and advance from there.

 

I employ about 70 young people (Age 17 to 20) That is not my experience of them.
I do know a number of university students who were told the world was their oyster if they got good results. My son included, he wanted to go into marine zoology but quickly found there were very few exciting jobs among the ones dredging buckets of mud up from around oil rigs and counting worms.
Luckily he's bright and joined my company where he learned software game programmimng.

 

When people think of technology and AI they tend to think of manufacturing, but most of the lost jobs are in service. Online banking, Insurance, loan applications, shopping, billing, and a million more jobs that were not shipped abroad but simply disappeared.

 

It's the Biden administration that makes me anxious and depressed.

Wars pretty much everywhere,
rising national debt,
doubts about the future of the dollar, loss of the basis of the dollar as Joey banned
Russia and therefore also countries that trade with Russia from using
SWIFT, and basically kicked them off the dollar,

who's going to buy our dollars now??

So we might get killed and we might get poor, and there appears to be
out of control crime, big stores nearby have closed due to rampant
shoplifting, and I don't know which skills I have will be worth anything
due to skilled immigrants coming in, and I've been in a lot of disputes
because I don't understand the necessity of any of Biden's wars but
other people think they do.

Rising interest rates mean mortgages are unaffordable while immigration
pushes up demand and therefore prices of housing, so it isn't good to
be young,

and a lot of old people are saying 'thank God I'll die soon'.

 

HI Yanford, pleased to meet you.
Interesting that you are suffering from a surge in shoplifting as its happening here in the UK as well. If you read any history around times of the poor rising up they always start with increased theft, this is generally followed by harsher penalties and more dictatorial rule and then civil war.
It is usually preluded by a struggling economy and often wars in foreign countries. These lead to the wealthy battening down their hatches, investment drying up and pay shrinking at the same time foreign imports get more expensive. All of these drive a people already living on the edge of society over it. Sympathy for theives grows even among usually honest folk and a trickle turns into a flood.

Only the wealthy can stop this process by helping the poor rather than hoarding. It has been done in the past a few times. I wonder if it will this time. The alternative is grim.

You should try the UK. You can get a decent two bed house in Texas for $120,000. A similar thing in the UK will cost you $300,000.
Our tiny country is well and truly full.

Here we're a bit different. Due to the huge rise in the value of property in the UK many of our old who bought property decades ago are so insulated from reality they can't even see the issues around them. (I'm 65 btw)

 

There are basically two trains of thought on getting involved in foreign wars.
This analogy helps explain.
Pro.
I am a farmer being asked to help deal with a pack of wolves far from my property, but I don't need to. My fences are strong and I have a rifle, a few wolves are nothing to do with me. Then one day there are a thousand wolves around my farm and my fences and rifle no longer feel so secure. (I.E You can't shut the world out)
Against.
It doesn't matter what you do there will always be more wolves, so the best you can do is to hire men to protect your fences and stay home.
(I.E isolationism)

I can understand both positions.