Young adults in Sweden feel significantly worse than older people in almost all areas of life. While older Swedes rank among the happiest in the world, young adults struggle with loneliness and psychological distress. These are the findings of a new large-scale study on flourishing in Sweden, published in the International Journal of Wellbeing and conducted by researchers at the Stockholm School of Economics, Lund University, Oslo Metropolitan University and Harvard University.
Any ideas as to why young and old people have such distinct levels of contentment? I’m guessing it has to do with owning your house and having a stable job.
Young people also realize the world is rapidly changing and the relative calm of the past 7 decades is fading. Old people don’t really care anymore and are stuck in their old ways where nothing ever affects them.
The article seems to be saying they are optimistic about the future though:
A surprisingly ignorant take
Older folks still seem to understand the value of face to face socialization. I’m 31 and it’s almost impossible to hang with people my age anymore. Most of my camping buddies are in their 50s now.
@rabber @Pip It comes as no major surprise.
People are being taken advantage of, Reinfeldt’s dismantlement of the welfare sphere and Bildt’s prior privatization of education initiates people into socio-economic castes early on in life that it has become increasingly difficult to escape.
Since, political division has resulted in compromise-regimes. Forcing a festering of existing issues.
Hopelessness makes people depressed and directionless. They do not want to do things. They want to escape.
In part, probably, but it’s also a bit weird since in Sweden you have every opportunity to succeed. Primary school is free, University is free, even if you fail in school you can go to municipal adult education, also free. There is a welfare state that takes care of you and will even pay your rent and food expenses if necessary. Healthcare is almost free. Job market is rough atm, but not exceptionally so.
To me it looks like younger generations look too much at other countries, which does have it worse, and somehow apply that to life in Sweden and believe things are really bad when in reality they aren’t. Things can always be better, but I don’t get the gloomy attitude tbh.
@CAVOK @Pip Sweden has it good, but it takes problems from abroad and insert them socially to such a degree they become real.
Much of it originates from America. But the education system is not as good as it appears to be on the surface. Grades are increasingly inflated, and private schools have hyper-prevalence for university applications. Not to mention the scandals related to the two prior-mentioned aspects.
Many people fall into the cracks and struggle to come out.
The Swedish rental market is abysmal
rental market everywhere in the west is abysmal…will be as long as they’re allowed to be used as vehicles to faciliate speculation instead of just as places to live
Yeah no. It is quite bad in many places all over the world. BUT. Big cities in Sweden are especially bad. By law you gotta queue to get a long term lease, and this queue can be 10+ years in Stockholm.
And yeah funnily enough, this is due to their rent control system. Maybe it could be implemented better, but their current system leads to terrible outcomes.
Sweden has the most unequal society of all Nordic countries. It’s not at the levels of France, Germany or the UK yet, but it has been trending in the wrong direction, and allowing brownshirts near the reins of power hasn’t helped either.