hey YouTube Alex here and I want to answer the question why are Filipinos happier than Americans I notice that in my comment section I have some unhappy Americans and I want to address some of why I think there
are so many unhappy Americans in 2024 I think some of the reason for unhappiness on the part of Americans is that the United States is a place of extreme you seem to have people that are either worried about
losing at all or people that have nothing to lose and not much in between one of the things that sticks out to me is when I run into people that are paradoxically in both situations they both feel like
they have nothing to lose and everything to lose and I feel that that applies to much of life in the US where I have people that are constantly telling me I need to do this and I need to
do that and raah ra Rah and they have no idea what my background is they don't know about any health issues I have they don't know much about my financial situation they don't know much about me at all
they've spent a few hours watching my videos and now all of a sudden they're trying to give advice and give prescriptions and I'm such an expert and I think this is where a lot of unhappiness comes from in
America is that a fair amount of people want to distract themselves from their own problems I know some people will say oh I'm so well too I'm an American this and that you still have problems in America to
act like you don't have problems in America is to avoid reality you've got a lot of people they don't want to talk about the realities fa ing other people and I know this because growing up my grandma would
use gossip as a means to avoid talking about issues in her own life and so I get this sense from a fair amount of the Americans that come into my comment section and start complaining is that they don't
have a lot going on in their lives and I think that's true for a lot of Americans it was brought to my attention by one of my subscribers and she's a Filipina Living in America she said I think
we're just suffering for no reason and I think that's true for a lot of Americans is that they have all this meaningless suffering in their lives it'd be one thing if they were close to their families if they
were close to their significant other if their personal lives weren't a train wreck but that's not the case for a lot of American people a lot of these people have train wrecks of personal lives and they're trying to
force their advice on me eventually I came to the conclusion it's not about me it's about them they watch YouTube because in the attention economy attention is in short supply they are desperate for attention and because their personal
lives are a train wreck they cannot easily get that attention they go on to the internet probably out in public then I started learning about adverse childhood experiences they're very prevalent in the US so you've got a ton
of Americans that have had adverse childhood experiences that never got therapy never tried to sort these issues out never tried to heal and so they can't maintain relationships in real life some of this is related to my video
about terminally on align xats but I think that term applies to a lot of Americans back home [Music] too and these people because they can't maintain in real life relationships very effectively they come on to the internet to
I don't know I guess it's for attention and I have so many people in the comment section where I'm thinking wow it's obvious you've alienated everybody and you're coming here because you don't pick up on social cues I
can't tell you how many people have told me how wealthy they are how rich they are in the comment section like you don't know me and you're sharing your personal financial details with me a total stranger you don't
know about my background you don't know if you could trust me or not why are you sharing this personal information with me I think that's why you see so much main character syndrome in the US where people operate
on the premise that everybody is in a movie based around their life and exists solely in relation to them can tell you how many Americans I've met the conversation is basically me me me me me me me me
me me me me me me me me me me me over and over again and I see that a lot and I think that's why so many Americans are so unhappy is that all they do all day is
think about themselves where the Filipino person is much more often thinking about their family if I talk to the average Filipino person about their priorities they may bring up their family how they're trying to help their family get
ahead how they're sending their sibling or cousin to college and when all you do is think about yourself you will end up miserable the reality that they're trying to avoid is that life is short and that they haven't
done everything they wanted to do that they spent all their time thinking about themselves and so they're sitting in this big house and they've got their big retirement accounts and their large social security check and nobody cares and
so they want somebody to care because I mean that's the only reason you'd go on a strangers Channel and start telling people about how well wealthy you are and that how the only thing that matters in life is
material wealth for some reason it's never people with perfect lives back home that try to give me bad advice it's never the person with a Happy Family the kids the grandkids the beautiful home the life that many of
us probably Envy on some level it's always man I got divorced for times here's some relationship advice oh man you know what I went bankrupt here's some Financial advice I do not want to take advice from people that
fail and if you're talking smack to people on YouTube on Christmas day instead of spending time with loved ones you failed in my book there's nobody watching YouTube on Christmas Day telling people go get a job who I
want to emulate in the attention economy people defer to whatever it is they want to pay attention to in some Western people that are spending Christmas on YouTube not all many of you guys are wondering F some of
you don't practice Faith Traditions but to go on there and the best thing that they've got to do is spend Christmas giving people bad advice I mean that represents a lot of Americans and some are not online to
be fair rather than to come on my channel some are spending their time arguing with family I remember I had a coworker that told me every year around the holidays he would get together with his dad and argue
about sports and I'm thinking man how sad does your life have to be that you're with your family for the holidays and you still don't get along you'd still probably be rather doing something else but maybe you do
so out of a sense of obligation there's probably somewhere else you'd rather be or other people you'd rather be spending time with I don't want to live a life of regret like a lot of Americans live when you're
on Christmas day and you're telling people about how they need to pursue material wealth that just goes to show how far the culture is Fallen that Americans won't even operate with Grace on a holiday that is very important
to many Americans Christmas for me growing up was considered the most prominent national holiday in the country not just to me but also to my neighbors also to people in my community and my city I think it's really
sad to see how far America Has Fallen that on the most important holiday of the year the only thing that people can think about is working for money to purchase material Goods yeah I know it's Christmas but man
look at my truck it used to be that people were in pursuit of freedom in the United States and now the culture has switched to one oriented toward consumption over freedom and consumption that's fueled by debt it's really
sad to see how far the US has fallen and what seems like a short time to me and to many other Americans to see people just totally focused on material wealth and I'm not saying material wealth is a
bad thing but we are at an extreme where that is the only reason that many people get out of bed every day in the United States is I need to check my retirement account I need to check my
investment portfolios I need to go look at my real estate and they watch their finite life drip Through The Hourglass slip through the cracks and then they get to the end of it they don't have the vitality and
they don't have the energy and all they have is look at my investments look at my money I think about my stepdad who the only thing that we have to talk about is money he can talk about other
topics for about 10 minutes maybe 15 minutes after about 10 to 15 minutes he shifts the conversation to money because that is the only area in life in which she has succeeded and so many Americans are like that
so why are Filipinos happier well Filipinos they aren't only thinking about themselves and their material wealth 24/7 often they're thinking about their families how they could be of service to their families how they could help their families out
what they could do to improve the lives of their families and not just the contents of their bank account I'm not trying to minimize their struggle or to downplay it I know there's struggle here but people here seem
to have more meaning in their lives and I see that throughout society and throughout the country and the city and H loser it's uh there just seems to be this sense of community we don't have in the US
the sense of meaning one of my subscribers is a Filipina and an American and she talked about the meaninglessness and Christmas in the United States and so that kind of does defend or explain it a bit that a
lot of Americans are no longer finding meaning in their material possessions and they have this empty Hollow feeling in regards to what they're lacking it is tragic I wish things could go back to the way they were but
I don't see that happening in my lifetime I hear it all the time from older American expats about how being in the Philippines reminds them of how the United States used to be and then alongside that I talk
to my friends like Ali who talk about how the Philippines reminds him of Iran when he grew up there and I think the Philippines will remain an attractive destination because of that family Centric culture that really gives a
lot of people this sense of community and a sense of belonging and love and something to fall back on where I think when Americans lose their material possessions it causes this existential crisis this sense that they're worthless and
that's why I think you see so many Americans begging for attention online through instigating through trying to drum up frustration try as they might no amount of money will fill up that sense of emptiness that they have in
their hearts and in their souls and in their minds I think if you were to ask a lot of Young Americans about their goals in life probably seven out of 10 would say my goal is to make a
lot of money and three out of 10 would say I don't know if you were to ask Filipinos about what their goals are in life some would say you know I want to be a good Christian some would
say I want to take care of my family oh hey so I just ran into my friend there and that was something that would never happen in the US I would never run into a friend just walking around
in town it's just such a different culture from what I'm used to if you were to ask a Filipino about what their purposes they'd probably say something like I want to be a good Christian I want to take
care of my parents I want to help send my sibling to college they'd have many good examples of what drives meaning in their lives [Music]
