A Poorer, More Upbeat America?

Should the nation’s financial troubles take a turn for the worse, there could be an upside: a new study suggests that a poorer America might also be a less miserable America.

The study released Tuesday concluded there is a higher incidence of depression in rich nations like the United States and France than in poorer countries, suggesting that having money and being happy could be mutually exclusive states for many Americans.

The global collaborative study examined depression and social conditions in 18 countries around the world and crunched the numbers based on interviews with 89,000 people. The results: An average of 15 percent of the population in wealthier nations suffered from depression over the course of their lifetime versus 11 percent for the less wealthy nations.

The lead author on the study, Dr. Evelyn Bromet, a professor of psychiatry at State University of New York at Stony Brook told ABC News that the team is not sure why there is such a vast difference between rich nations such as France, Germany, Belgium, the United States and Japan, and low-income ones like Colombia, India, China, Mexico and South Africa.

"Why this may be the case is the $64,000 question,” Bromet said. “We don't know for sure."

Among those who did describe themselves as depressed, China had the lowest average rate of major depression, 12 percent versus 30 percent in the United States, France, India and the Netherlands. One thing that the study did find was that depression was equally lousy wherever it struck, harming relationships, making it tough to go to work and making life more difficult in general.

In reaction to the study, other medical experts suggested that in wealthy, industrialized nations people rely less on family support and are less likely to be spiritual or religious. On top of that, they may have greater expectations about the levels of wealth and success that they ought to achieve.

So there: Don’t you feel better about the possibility of America's credit rating slipping to AA and the debt ceiling mess already?

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