"Increasingly poor economic prospects" isn't true. The world is far wealthier and youth have far better economic prospects than they did in previous generations, when the world was poor and the rate of teen depression/suicide was low.
The two main arguments on mental health "it's the phones" and "the world actually sucks and the kids are right to be depressed." But in the actual data doomerism doesn't correlate with the crisis. Phone usage and decline in face-to-face interaction does.
3-4 typical incomes necessary to support a household
This makes no sense. It sounds like you are talking about California. No, it doesn't take 3-4 incomes to live a middle class life in California. Yes, it takes two.
California has huge differences in living expenses so saying it takes # of typical incomes to survive would only be sensical in certain places.
I live in FL. A bit over a generation ago, we could survive on one typical income but it was tight. It is now tight with 3 typical incomes and a home expense in the low-mid range.
The two main arguments on mental health "it's the phones" and "the world actually sucks and the kids are right to be depressed." But in the actual data doomerism doesn't correlate with the crisis. Phone usage and decline in face-to-face interaction does.
Two sources:
- "No, teen suicide isn't because the world is objectively worse": https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/teen-suicide-depress...
- "Don't be a doomer": https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/dont-be-a-doomer?utm_source=su...