What about the colloquial increased education = increased stress. I’m not talking about the stress of trying to pay your bills on a welders salary, but the stress of running enterprise projects, teams, or being the top neuroscientist in your field. The stress from that is a different kind. It’s a continual stress especially for those that suffer from impostor syndrome. Anyway, interesting theory about cortisol spikes. Where can I read more?
Lower socioeconomic status is on average far more stressful than high SES.
Sure, it's possible to be relaxed about your lower status, but it's way easier to be relaxed about being richer: e.g., look at your coworkers who are quietly working for 4 hours and then going out biking in the middle of the day.
There's a cultural narrative that in some ways, richer people have it harder than poorer ones. It's responsible for underpinning the moral legitimacy of our class system, but I don't think it's actually true on average.
The thing is, no matter where you land you're going to find people who are unhappy or are struggling with their problems, but that's just because humans in general struggle with things.
Personally I am able to find that more often doing chores around the house than actually doing work in the office... which must be why I love doing the dishes
