Cities are like a wall that block people off from viewing the true reality of life... They put huge buildings up that create "bosses" and "corporate culture" and "stores" which all feed being over worked and the ideals of constant desire for more (consumerism). You can only work in a city if you adopt the mindset, which truly is "grind till you die" to your detriment.
People need to burnout in order to fuel a world like ours, it's no different than in the past. Some would say there are simply "too many people on this earth" to escape the constant drive for workplace-related abuse, social inequality, criminal behavior, and injustice when people are tightly packed into cities unfortunately. You realize a different way of living when you escape the city and live in a less populated environment that fosters more of what really matters - Family, Health, Creativity, Communication, Mental Well Being, Nature, and Less of a Competitive/Combative Enviornment.
Once you visit other (more rural and natural) places where people live in communities, where the pace is much more slow, like farms, mountains, beaches etc, most thoughtful people pause and realize that none of the "concrete jungle" accomplishments really matter in terms of life merits. Unfortunately, the poor and working classes rarely if ever have a chance to escape on a vacation, so they are burdened most by burnout... That burnout feeds bad things like suicide, drug abuse, poverty, depression, crime, etc, while the rest of society simply remains ignorant to the root causes of those things. Not to say that those rural and natural places are perfect to live in, but they allow for less distraction from meaningful life goals in many ways over city environments.
Many (wealthier middle class) people occasionally get to take that nature vacation at points in their life, and then later return to the city grind, hoping to recapture the vibe in retirement, but they forget the true motivation as they get behind the city walls again often.
The super-wealthy buy homes in relaxed environments at their whim... And many even work in the city without leaving their super comfortable beach and mountain "vacation" houses. Some would say that's one of the major reasons they often think far beyond the constraints of their (less paid) employees who live in the city and work in the city office... Not because they are "smarter" it's possibly because they are far more often less "mentally distracted" and weighted down by finances, work commutes, and burnout culture of city living.
The API of the City is a real phenomenon. The API provides services that residents cannot get elsewhere and demands certain rituals and ceremonies. For example, the API of the City implicitly prohibits eating food off of the ground for safety and sanitary reasons yet humanity ate food from the ground for 100,000 years. There are many examples like this.
A whole lot of other factors come into play in that statement.
Your current age.
Your current socio/economic/financial position in life.
Whether you are single or married.
If you have children or not.
Where exactly you live.
How much you really rely on things related in a city.
My statement was geared towards one's life over it's entire span, rather than being geared towards the current point we're each at in life... When I was younger, I greatly enjoyed living in the city despite all the expense and other issues like crime and close proximity to neighbors. As I grew older, a more quiet (suburban, but close enough to the city) life began to seduce me... Not saying it as concrete fact, but if you really talk to a wide range of people in older age, it's a recurring trend.
I'm not a data scientist nor working in health care, but my personal opinion leans towards drug abuse being more related/linked to a person's personal experiences, upbringing, and social and economic conditions rather than primarily being linked to where they live. Both rich and poor statistically are represented in terms of drug abuse, the consequences for drug abuse are often more severe for abuse if one is on the less affluent side though (enforcement-wise and health-wise in a historical sense).
If growing up (and currently living) in the rural American south has taught me anything, everyone is high on something. From my mother taking xanax to balance out the overwhelming amount of volunteer work stress she has from church, friends smoking/drinking away the boredom after a long day of oilfield work, or my weed habit for settling down my mind after a long day at the computer.
I think it's like that most everywhere (at the very least, in the US) not just the rural South. I can't remember who sent it, but there was a great tweet I read once that went something like:
"The two biggest surprises of my transition from childhood to adult life were learning that:
1. Everyone is on cocaine.
2. Cheese is fucking expensive."
And sure enough, as I approach 40, practically every adult I know regularly uses at least one—and usually several—mood-, mind-, or perception-altering drugs, legal or otherwise. I'm sure it was true when I was a kid, too, but a combination of my own obliviousness and DARE programs had me thinking otherwise.
[EDIT] actually, I bet it's like that everywhere, period, with few exceptions. There was a travel photo-blogger I used to read a lot, and a common feature of trips to relatively remote and non-touristy/low-development areas was "here's the stall where they sell the one or two obscure-to-westerners drugs that every single adult here takes every single day" For developed areas I expect that only didn't happen because, outside of tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, maybe weed (quite a list already!), plus, you know, drug stores full of prescription drugs, the drugs aren't sold openly like that.
I, too, am approaching 40, and I am still shocked by how many people, how very many high-functioning/high-status/high-contribution-to-society people are fueled by drugs.
Doctors, nurses, lawyers, managers, psychologists, developers…bring on the modafinil, Adderall, cocaine, MDMA, mushrooms, and weed.
(Not that I would ever do such things, no sir, this current design I’m about to ship doesn’t taste like Provigil at all.)
Yeah, even though I've joined that group, I still struggle to process it. "You mean... an extremely high percentage of successful people are 'druggies'?" It's so entirely contrary to the propaganda we received as kids.
Re-contextualizes a lot of cop and justice system stuff. "The defendant had coke in his car". Yeah, so? Decent chance the judge has some in his chambers, too. Doesn't mean shit. "The suspect smelled of weed" yeah, and so did some of the best teachers and professors I ever had, who were, I'm pretty sure, high more often than not.
Another weird thing: my view on alcohol has gotten a lot dimmer over time. As much as I love some of the flavors you can get out of fermentation and distillation, it really is one of the worst of the lot, as far as health damage and how it makes you feel, often stretching into the next day as general lethargy and feeling "off", even if you don't have every much.
I would love to see that stats on that, but it somehow seems like it is more common in the US than in, say, Denmark or the UK even. But then, my perception is primarily from:
1. US TV shows, where it seems like all kinds of drug use is more normalized
2. US 'high-status' culture seeming very odd - this whole thing about people having to always appear positive, high-energy, always busy (partly what I see from US TV shows, partly what my own experience) just doesn't seem sustainable without some sort of drug support.
People need to burnout in order to fuel a world like ours, it's no different than in the past. Some would say there are simply "too many people on this earth" to escape the constant drive for workplace-related abuse, social inequality, criminal behavior, and injustice when people are tightly packed into cities unfortunately. You realize a different way of living when you escape the city and live in a less populated environment that fosters more of what really matters - Family, Health, Creativity, Communication, Mental Well Being, Nature, and Less of a Competitive/Combative Enviornment.
Once you visit other (more rural and natural) places where people live in communities, where the pace is much more slow, like farms, mountains, beaches etc, most thoughtful people pause and realize that none of the "concrete jungle" accomplishments really matter in terms of life merits. Unfortunately, the poor and working classes rarely if ever have a chance to escape on a vacation, so they are burdened most by burnout... That burnout feeds bad things like suicide, drug abuse, poverty, depression, crime, etc, while the rest of society simply remains ignorant to the root causes of those things. Not to say that those rural and natural places are perfect to live in, but they allow for less distraction from meaningful life goals in many ways over city environments.
Many (wealthier middle class) people occasionally get to take that nature vacation at points in their life, and then later return to the city grind, hoping to recapture the vibe in retirement, but they forget the true motivation as they get behind the city walls again often.
The super-wealthy buy homes in relaxed environments at their whim... And many even work in the city without leaving their super comfortable beach and mountain "vacation" houses. Some would say that's one of the major reasons they often think far beyond the constraints of their (less paid) employees who live in the city and work in the city office... Not because they are "smarter" it's possibly because they are far more often less "mentally distracted" and weighted down by finances, work commutes, and burnout culture of city living.