I've not been to Africa, but several other less developed parts of the world and my take is that it's different being poor in these types of places rather than in the US.
In some countries, other people don't have much of anything, so people just kind of help each other out, others don't judge you for being short on cash and people even tolerate a bit of hustling. Kindness is important.
I find developing countries also often have a kind of homogeneous culture with shared beliefs and practices, which makes everyone feel like they're part of a community.
The USA puts money on a pedestal like nowhere I've ever seen before, ever, so not having money is bad in the USA. We can't even get healthcare without money. It's quite tragic.
Usually people are more depressed if they had something and were forced to give it up than if they never had it at all and are working hard to attain it. Same reason that the American Dream is alive and well among immigrants at the same time that the former American middle-class is dying of despair.
> Usually people are more depressed if they had something and were forced to give it up than if they never had it at all and are working hard to attain it.
Third option: They worked to attain it, they got it, and they found that it was empty.
"I worked my butt off to get a bigger TicTok following. And I got it! Why aren't I happy? Why isn't my life any better?" Because happiness and a better life were never in a bigger TicTok following.
Both advertising and social media sell us on empty goals and rewards. We chase them. We're not just miserable because we can't achieve them; we're also miserable because even when we do, we find that we got nothing meaningful.
My assumption would be that they have something to look forward to. Some parts of Africa have improved a lot over the years, whereas the US, for the most part, had it good and now is seeing it slowly decay in real time.
It is very difficult to compare the numbers directly. I would expect that on many African countries there is less acces to mental health professionals to diagnose people, maybe also more prejudice agains seeking help for mental health. Also it could be that people seek help in their community or religion without a formal medical diagnosis.
Possibly for regions where there is war or food insecurity seeking a diagnosis is less of a priority. I have no idea how much of an impact these have if any, but I don’t think you can just compare numbers directly.
I read a book that suggested some clues, it was a pretty opinionated and cynical book (Dark star safari). So im not an expert. The commentary he had suggested its cultural. They know what they know, kind of accepted how things are. Dont really care about getting ahead, buying, and accumulating wealth. those kinds of are effected by economies. but just one viewpoint someone had
Just spitballing here, but a culture which focuses more on individualism, less emphasis on family and community. People disown their families over petty things like political differences, don't engage in their communities because they're shut up inside watching TV all day, then find themselves without social support networks to help when they're feeling down.
To be fair, political differences are a result of moral and ethical ideology. It's fine to not involve yourself with someone whose ideology is antithetical to goodness as subjective as it may be for some.
I will never understand someone who says political differences are petty. Thinking that the traffic light's hue of yellow is a shade too light or dark is petty. Thinking that pregnant women should die because the unviable fetus their carrying is more important than they are is not petty.
People who are opposed to abortion absolutely don't want anyone to die. It's a trolley problem to them, one with varying degrees of answers and consequences. How would you like it if someone called you an evil murderer (or whatever you're implying they are after calling them "antiethical to goodness") for making a moral choice in the trolley problem?
I can predict your reply, and I will tell you that to pro-life people, a fetus is a human life not unlike a 1 day old baby. If they believed otherwise, they wouldn't be against abortion, they'd agree with you.
A woman carrying an unviable fetus will die if she is forced to continue the pregnancy. The pro-life crowd overwhelmingly puts in place policy that doesn't take anything into consideration about the impact of the pregnancy on the mother. This means that they want her to die to punish her for her decision to have sex.
I'm not in favor of abortion personally but I will always be staunchly pro-choice. It's the only ethical, moral, and logical position one can have. Anything else is punitive and regressive.
See also preventing folks from getting medical care, access to support services, children having food at school, or any other conservative position on anything that drives the welfare of disadvantaged people. It's immoral, unethical, and illogical. You can safely cut those people out of your life without being petty or other vapid argumentative nonsense.
