How bad are things?
I think this is a fundamental property of capitalism. People who are happy and taken care of don&#x27;t need to spend money and are terrible for the economy. If you can create problems for someone, you can market solutions to them. Some of the best selling products in the world, like Coca-Cola, are themselves creating the the problem they purport to solve.<p>For a century, companies have been pushing cultural changes that make it harder for us to take car of ourselves, privatizing public spaces for socialization, promoting nuclear families over extended families and neighborhoods, narrowing beauty standards, promoting exotic vacations and recreational activities, etc. This has fueled economic growth while making us generally more vulnerable. As the article describes, even if you have enough money to take care of your basic needs, you have a long distance to go to happiness.<p>On the tech side this is quite common too. I would put PowerPoint in this category, too. And most AAA video games.<p>The sooner we can get out of this &quot;money is a proxy for everything because markets are perfect&quot; nonsense the better.