HBO has been killing it with their documentaries recently. This is the third one I've watched recently, after watching Leaving Neverland and the one on Theranos.
Although my original plan has been to FIRE in a year's time, this documentary has me thinking I need to do it earlier.
Key messages in the documentary:
- The life expectancy in the U.S. has dropped for three straight years. It's been 100 years since we've seen that.
- The lower and middle class populations are under constant stress due to economic factors and lack of control.
- Constant stress damages the brain, sometimes irreparably. The most severe effects are to the frontal cortex, and they lead to diminished empathy and impulse control, among other things.
- Changes with white males 35-55 are the major reason for the life expectancy drop, and a lot of it is due to the loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs.
- Other countries with poorer overall populations fare better because they have better social support structures, something that has eroded in the U.S.
There's much more as well, including overmedication and the rise in suicide.
The brain images they showed where they can see parts of the brain shrinking over time were especially powerful for me.
Has anyone else watched this documentary this week? Anyone else thinking of moving up that FIRE date? :)
I guess my thinking is that while another year or two will put me in a much better financial position, the added stress could have much worse effects for my life than the diminished nest egg would.
