While I do agree with the majority of your post and it's very close to what I've been trying to do on my own, I wouldn't call it easy. It's a simple formula and I think the majority of people would benefit from trying to attempt the formula or a version of it before seeking professional help.
When you're in a negative mental state, none of these things are easy. Eating right, for example, assumes you know what right is, you can afford it, you have access to it and you have the energy to get it. All of those points have their own unique "prerequisites".
A bad mental state can keep you from completing those prerequisites.
A bad mental state can prevent the formula from working even if strictly followed.
There's still value in doing them because it keeps things from being worse. If there's something worse than being depressed, it's being depressed and hungry, or depressed and scared, or depressed and tired.
A bad mental state also messes with your perception. Good becomes bad, bad becomes worse, and worse becomes worst. Keeping a daily track of things ensures that you'll always have an objective source of truth. So that even if things feel hopeless, you can look back and pinpoint the few good moments.
I've been steadily working on my version of the formula for ~4y and the majority of the time I feel content but there are days where its still a challenge to do the right thing and days where I have to force myself to even get out of bed. But I can always look back and see that things aren't that bad. They just feel that way right now.
I mean we should be moving to less labor intensive business models anyway. Companies that already embrace automation are getting rid of the workers. We as a society should get ahead of this and ensure that the people who need help are able to get it.
I'm also curious why we need to make it cheaper to employ workers? What does society gain from having people work for 40 hours a week but still live in poverty?
I understand where you are coming from when you say that " It's a good thing these employees are getting government aid" but that's only because the alternative is not having any aid.
Which is obviously worse. I support increasing the amount of government aid available but the companies are obviously taking advantage of it. These companies don't care about hiring disabled people and single parents. They aren't a charity, if they could hire people to work for even less money they would.
The companies need to be taxed for every single employee that is on benefits. If the tax is high enough they will either increase how much they pay or fire the struggling employees, I doubt future employees will be in a different set of circumstances. Companies are incentivized by profit. If there is a behavior that you don't want to happen tax or fine it. If the behavior remains, increase the tax/fine. Instead these companies get slaps on the wrist or even rewarded.
When you're in a negative mental state, none of these things are easy. Eating right, for example, assumes you know what right is, you can afford it, you have access to it and you have the energy to get it. All of those points have their own unique "prerequisites".
A bad mental state can keep you from completing those prerequisites.
A bad mental state can prevent the formula from working even if strictly followed.
There's still value in doing them because it keeps things from being worse. If there's something worse than being depressed, it's being depressed and hungry, or depressed and scared, or depressed and tired.
A bad mental state also messes with your perception. Good becomes bad, bad becomes worse, and worse becomes worst. Keeping a daily track of things ensures that you'll always have an objective source of truth. So that even if things feel hopeless, you can look back and pinpoint the few good moments.
I've been steadily working on my version of the formula for ~4y and the majority of the time I feel content but there are days where its still a challenge to do the right thing and days where I have to force myself to even get out of bed. But I can always look back and see that things aren't that bad. They just feel that way right now.