Why Life Never Gets Better For Americans
Image Credit: Social Progress Imperative
What Americans Need to Understand About Why Their Society Is Failing, Before It’s Too Late
by umair haque
It’s time for one of those weird, antiquated traditions. The State of the Union speech. The President of the United States gets up, to defend his track record, to pre-arranged applause, and in these troubled times, probably more than a few scowls and jeers from the other side, too. This State of the Union, though, is different. Biden’s going to defend his track record, mostly, on the economy. And there, things are in a curious, strange place.
I came across a startling statistic that puts all this in perspective. Is the economy booming, as one side of pundits and economists say, citing a historically low unemployment rate? Or is it…in a stagflationary spiral, as another warns? The statistic — startling, yet unsurprising. 60% of Americans, or thereabouts, think that their lives haven’t improved or are more or less the same since Biden took office.
In other words, a majority of Americans are pessimistic about the economy, and of course, that’s borne out by plenty of other indicators, too, like most expecting a worse life for their kids, the loss of trust in institutions, a widespread loss of confidence in people and society.
That’s pretty damning statistic for a President to have to face. 60% of people think they’re no better off or worse off. But this statistic also needs context, and I’m going to give it to you, along with a little bit of…tough love.
Americans always feel like things aren’t getting better for them. Like even if “the economy” — in the grand, abstract terms of pundits and economists — is “improving,” their personal plight isn’t. This situation has gone on as long as I can remember, my entire adult life. Probably since about the late 80s or so. That’s a very, very long time for people to feel like their lives aren’t getting any better.
Now. That’s a super important thing, finding, social sentiment. Because it’s not normal. For widespread pessimism to persist for decades — no matter if there’s a boom here, or an upswing here, or a positive development there — is a Big Problem. It might be the biggest problem America really has. Because this many people feeling this way can’t be making it all up. There must be some truth to this social sentiment, given that it’s so widespread.
So what is going on here? Why is it that Americans never feel their lives are getting any better? No matter if the economy’s booming, cry pundits, if things have never been better, cry intellectuals, if everything’s going gangbusters, cry Presidents — like Biden? Let me say it again, this time emphasizing that nobody else in the world, really, that I can think of, not Canadians, Europeans, Asians, Africans thinks this way this consistently — why do Americans never think their lives get any better, over what’s at this point, decades, approaching half a century?
Yes, of course, if you need the usual caveat, that’s a generalization. A minority of Americans does — even in this poll, some 30% of Americans said their lives had improved under Biden. The discomfiting truth is that number isn’t enough. In terms of social trends, attitudes, sentiments, the way people perceive their future as a society — the fact is that too many Americans never think their lives get any better.
All of that raises three big questions, which we’re going to take one by one. Number one: are Americans correct to feel this way? Or are they making it all up? Two: if they’re correct to feel this way, then what exactly is the problem here? How can it be that in a society — any society, really — people’s lives never get any better, for decades? And three — once we understand the causes — can anything be done about it?
Let’s begin with number one. Is this a fiction, or, like I said, does this many people feeling this way point to a social truth? The facts on the ground are grim, and incredibly revealing. Americans are correct to think their lives don’t get any better. Every which way we look at American life, the fact is that it’s eudaimonically stagnated or declined — that’s a fancy way to say that American living standards haven’t risen for a very long time, and in fact, in many key ways, have imploded.
In which ways, precisely? Let’s begin with money, which is what Americans are always panicked about. Why is that? Again, in most of the rest of the world, even much poorer countries, people aren’t nearly as panicked about money as Americans are. Americans are, though, because their incomes have been stagnant since the 1970s, but of course, the cost of living, LOL, hardly has been. The basics in America are criminally expensive, and in most societies, charging people that much for healthcare or education or transportation or what have you would actually be criminal. Because in every other rich society, and even now in plenty of middle income ones, all these basics are universal human rights.
But in America, they’re not. Famously so. You have to choose: that life-saving operation, or a home? Or your kids college fund? Hey, did you know it costs a small fortune to educate a kid? The Sorbonne in Paris is France’s rough equivalent to Harvard. Tuition at Harvard’s $50K a year. The Sorbonne is…free. As in literally actually free.
When the basics cost this much, of course the end result is that living standards fall — and that’s what’s happened in America. Americans live way, way worse lives than their peers in other rich countries, so much so that in many ways, American living standards are uniquely, weirdly bad. They live shorter lives, unhealthier lives. They have an almost complete lack of social relations. They’re constantly stressed and depressed and angry — just look at the state of society. All of this is glossed over with a sugar coating of Marvel movies called “culture,” but it’s far from much of that, sadly, because real culture enlightens people, not just numbs them. All of that’s getting worse generationally.