[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by horn

grow in terms of population?

No, economic growth. And not just the GDP doubled sort of stuff - actual advancement in living standards. OK, it's all subjective - but I'm not sure there's much on the horizon for Europeans that will rock their world unless we make some real progress with a new energy source, get some real results in terms of genetic modification or nanotechnology. But for a country which is at the bottom of the pile right now, there is a chance that their childrens lives could be dramatically better than theres (in terms of access to clean water, better sanitation, dramatically better than medicene). Put another way : the UK had a life expectancy of 65 years in 1950-55. Now it's about 74years. It's take 50 years to increase less than a decade. If we look at China (which was much poorer per capita than the UK in 1950, and still is) it's gone from 42 to 69.

would this mean that people who work longer hours in the west should have a lower chance of developing depression?

It depends on what you're doing in those hours and why you're doing them. I don't think "people who work longer hours" is a coherent group of people - between jobs expectations vary wildly. There was something in the media a while ago about graduates going into financial firms had "unrealistically low expectations" of how many hours they'd need to do - since they thought they could get away with 50 hour weeks. In lots of jobs, 50 hour weeks are actively discouraged.

If someone is working long hours in a job which does not stimulate them at all and they are not engaging in physically tiring labour, I would imagine would be prone to feeling a bit miserable. If you're kept manically busy then it's different - most jobs which have been physically exhausting that I've done I've not found depressing (in the same way tedious admin work can be) since I've tended to get home and go straight to sleep and not had the time to mope while working. Now, if I did that for a number of years I might feel quite different of course.

But not all people dislike the work they do. In my own office, there is a broad correlation between people working long hours and seniority within the organisation. This is unsurprising given (a) they were promoted for a reason and (b) they tend to be doing work that is more interesting. I work much longer hours than I did four/five years ago, but the work is dramatically more enjoyable, so any direct comparison isn't meaningful.

Additionally, I would think that depression is very much linked to your perception of choice or freedom. The Chief Exec might have to work 70 hours a week to keep on top of things, but he or she can always choose to step back - move to a smaller home, work less hours, take a career break or retire early on the pension/savings they might have built up. Yeah, they might never do these things - but that doesn't matter, life is much more tolerable if you know where the emergency exits are located.

If you're working long hours because you've got a family to support and you're only earning £6 an hour then retiring at 50 to a little chateu in France might be a tad optimistic.