Why are Americans Unhappy? by Chris Arnade Walks the World

Yeah – I think this is broadly right -> Why are Americans Unhappy? – Chris Arnade Walks the World

If Happiness = Reality – Expectations then, yes, when we collectively decide that career and money is The Only Thing That Matters and make it as confusing as a never-ending maze as to how to obtain said career & financial success…then I would say that Happiness will come out negative.

America’s various levels of governments could do a lot to solve the precarity of modern American life that causes even people who are doing well to not feel like they are doing well when one hurricane, one car wreck, one scam call, etc can undo a life’s worth of hard work.

But also, we are all complicit in paying way too much attention to career and money. In the ’90s, I genuinely had no idea who was “rich” – all I knew was that Michael Jordan, John Elway, and Greg Maddux were really cool because they could win sports games. Among the more serious adult world, I thought Madeleine Albright and Zell Miller were cool because she brokered peace treaties and he could pass laws in Georgia. But now, it seems like there’s more attention paid to the wealth of athletes and politicians than anything else. And my own kids (at a similar age) seem to know way too much about who’s richer than whom.

I think it’s just a phase. America has always been exceptional at creating new Status Games to play even if those Status Games are underrated right now.