The data are in: life under Putin is a continuous downward spiral into despair

[uhnope]

Recently the Brookings Institution's Carol Graham released a striking chart (below) showing the relationship between age and happiness around the world, as measured via the Gallup World Poll (conducted from 2011 to 2013). She describes it as "a U-shaped curve, with the low point in happiness being at roughly age 40 around the world." The takeaway? Once we've passed a certain point "things get better as we age, as long as we are reasonably healthy (age-adjusted) and in a stable partnership."

Graham explained to me that this relationship is fairly universal - it shows up across countries, across generations, and even among apes. But there's some bad news in here for Millennials - as if coming of age in the worst job market in modern memory wasn't enough, statistically speaking the worst is still far ahead of them. The happiness curve for the United States bottoms out at about age 47. This means that for the average 25-year-old, life will continually become worse over the next two decades before things finally start to turn around. You think you're having a bad today? Remember the immortal words of Homer Simpson: "This isn't the worst day of your life - this is only the worst day of your life so far."

But American Millennials can at least be thankful that they don't live in Russia. Graham provided me with data on the happiness curves for various countries, which are plotted below. One important caveat - these charts only look at the relationship between age and happiness within countries. Happiness values are relative, and cannot be compared between countries.

In most countries, the happiness curve bottoms out somewhere around middle age - 47 in the U.S. and 41 in the U.K., for instance. This usually happens long before the average person is expected to die, with one major exception: Russia. In Russia the curve doesn't bottom out until age 91. Essentially, life under Putin is one continuous downward spiral into despair.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/01/the-data-are-in-life-under-putin-is-a-continuous-downward-spiral-into-despair/

[bemildred]

1. Link? nt

[uhnope]

2. oops. done

[1000words]

3. Happiness, as a concept, is relative.

How can anyone attempt to quantify an emotion, let alone use it as a data set?

[bemildred]

5. It appears to be based on massaging of data derived from Gallup's global happiness polls.

So it's about as compelling as any internet opinion poll is. I did like the nice smooth curves though.

[1000words]

6. Heh ...

[cheapdate]

4. I saw a documentary a year or so ago

that spent time in the personal lives of young Russians. They were working and starting and raising families and finding enjoyment in life where they could, but there was a deep cynicism and a fatalism about their expectations in Russia and especially the about the government and the state. There was very little expectation that anything they could do would have any effect on the government.

Some of it was "typical" Russian cynicism, but it was also uniquely aware of the present political reality.

I suspect the Brookings poll approximates the truth.

[RobertEarl]

7. Damn, I'm weird

Always knew it... this just proves it.

My life rose and rose and rose until I hit the top a few years ago.

But then, I did it my way. I didn't have a wife, or a boss. Semi-retired early and began real studies of the natural world at about 30. Until then it was just one party after another.

I feel for the people who have had to live their lives for someone else. People would ask me how I did it; I told them that when the SHTF, I walked away.

My advice if you are young... pursue happiness. Hey, really, you are never to old to decide to be happy, eh?

[moondust]

8. Older Russians lost the most in transition.

Last edited Wed Apr 2, 2014, 01:32 AM - Edit history (1)

It's probably not fair to judge Russia against other countries due to the extraordinary social and economic changes it has undergone since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Older Russians had the most invested in the old system and many were too old to start over in the new system--now without the benefits of socialized services, etc. You can probably figure at least one or two "transition" generations as they try to put together a system that works, create new institutions, etc. Making matters worse, I think much of the wealth created during the transition period by privatizing Soviet state assets ended up not serving the public but in the hands of a few oligarchs.

[RobertEarl]

9. As for Russians decline: radiation is a factor?

Chernobyl polluted the whole country side. Not only that, but the Soviet Union spread radiation far and wide in heir nuclear dealings.

An old but interesting NYT article about the Russian pop decline:

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/02/world/plunging-life-expectancy-puzzles-russia.html