Reading takes a mental load, and when times are tough are lazy brains don’t want to work for entertainment. It needs to save that bandwidth for getting resources.

That’s why the article references the Great Depression and the reading resurgence that followed. Especially important because “common sense” would say that cheap and easily resellable media (free from libraries) would have been on of the few things people could afford during GD. With FDR providing a social safety net after, the people could “afford” to read for relaxation. It all comes back to Maslows hierarchy of need, if the basics aren’t met, nothing else matters, we regress.

Which is important because it’s easier to fix then people think. Gotta fulfill basic needs and suddenly everything gets better for everyone. Even just day to day life, dealing with stressed people sucks. If the majority of people have basic needs met, everything just moves smoothly.