This article is a fascinating exploration of why Americans are so miserable when, objectively speaking, the country is better off. It has a focus on systemic causes and purposefully rejects slopulism.
account819921 on
It’s because money can’t buy happiness. America is second only to Luxembourg in disposable median income, but if you struggle to find meaning, it won’t make a difference.
Illustrious-Rush8797 on
So basically it’s comparison that’s making people miserable
CincyAnarchy on
>”But think of how much richer we could be in we had (Drained the Swamp/Not Electected Fascists/Etc)”
Unironically Americans are under the belief, in some ways founded TBH, that they’d be “even better off” if not for some reasons that are someone’s fault.
And hell, even those on this sub would agree. How many years running of at best mediocre and at worst absolutely terrible economic policy have we had? At least the last 10, and arguably the last 25 or so too.
People don’t compare to the “Poor starving kids in Africa,” they don’t even compare themselves to other rich countries, they compare to what’s around them and what they could have been if they were on a hot streak.
One_Emergency7679 on
It’s our zoning, hyper individualistic culture, and bleak institutional/government outlook
Aceous on
It’s housing.
PaxChelonia on
For all the headline readers: this is specifically an attempt to explain economic pessimism, not broader commentary on happiness or mental health
Goldmule1 on
*My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.* – Desmond Tutu.
Flat_Sail_7985 on
You cannot consume your way out of bad feelings. When most modern solutions to problems revolve around consuming something or spending money on something it all rings hollow.
Oozing_Sex on
Entitlement, or at least a lack of gratefulness for what they have.
There is a current running through our culture where people are resentful of what they don’t have more so than they are grateful for what they do have.
Things can always be better, but they can also always be worse.
Golda_M on
2 reasons, broadly.
One is that gdp per capita (or any measure) does not capture everything. A basic lifestyle is not necessarily any more affordable/accessible than in past decades,
The second (bigger) reason is comparison. Comparison relative to expectations, peers, parents. There are negative aume games here.
For example: class mobility. If some people outdo their parents’ position on socioeconomic ladder… others will have moved down the ladder. Moving down the ladder is rough.
Also… when things go well, we often fall out over the split. This happens among founder of companies, and it happens to societies. The crisis of the Roman Republic was basically this.
Kardinal on
Definitely worth reading. This is the really important bit. But read the article to understand **why** this is so frequent.
>The result can be a constant sense that you’re a second-class citizen. You check into hotels eyeing the shorter Gold check-in line. You ride in the rental shuttle past the Preferred kiosk, where the frequent travelers just grab their keys and go.
>Or, much more consequentially, you move to a new city and find that the wait to get established with a new doctor can stretch for months — unless you are able to pay the high monthly fee for concierge medicine. Then you can be seen right away, perhaps with a bonus offer of Botox for the middle-aged patient.
>And what if you live in a city that the top 10 percent love? Well, then even being upper middle class doesn’t feel affluent at all. Six-figure salaries purchase shoe-box apartments, and everything from groceries to gas costs an absurd amount. Soon enough, you’re googling the real estate prices in Chattanooga or Des Moines — surely it’s cheaper there — whether or not you intend to ever leave.
>In this context, “affordability” doesn’t just refer to the cost of a specific good (or even necessarily the rate of inflation at any given time) but rather to the price of entry into what should feel like a normal American life — one that includes baseball games with the kids, a doctor on call, a home you like, and, at the very least, a basic sense that you haven’t been left behind.
TLDR on why it’s happening is that most of the actual money is spent by the top 10% of income earners, so the marketing and the services get aimed at them, not normal people.
But everyone sees the marketing and the results of the services targetted at the top end. And they compare themselves, and feel bad.
15 Comments
“Money can’t buy you happiness, just a prettier misery”
I just mounted a tv to watch from my hot tub and I think ive reached nirvana.
Might be the best illustration:
https://youtu.be/meiU6TxysCg?si=c-xDVOs1ewQ_zL71
This article is a fascinating exploration of why Americans are so miserable when, objectively speaking, the country is better off. It has a focus on systemic causes and purposefully rejects slopulism.
It’s because money can’t buy happiness. America is second only to Luxembourg in disposable median income, but if you struggle to find meaning, it won’t make a difference.
So basically it’s comparison that’s making people miserable
>”But think of how much richer we could be in we had (Drained the Swamp/Not Electected Fascists/Etc)”
Unironically Americans are under the belief, in some ways founded TBH, that they’d be “even better off” if not for some reasons that are someone’s fault.
And hell, even those on this sub would agree. How many years running of at best mediocre and at worst absolutely terrible economic policy have we had? At least the last 10, and arguably the last 25 or so too.
People don’t compare to the “Poor starving kids in Africa,” they don’t even compare themselves to other rich countries, they compare to what’s around them and what they could have been if they were on a hot streak.
It’s our zoning, hyper individualistic culture, and bleak institutional/government outlook
It’s housing.
For all the headline readers: this is specifically an attempt to explain economic pessimism, not broader commentary on happiness or mental health
*My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.* – Desmond Tutu.
You cannot consume your way out of bad feelings. When most modern solutions to problems revolve around consuming something or spending money on something it all rings hollow.
Entitlement, or at least a lack of gratefulness for what they have.
There is a current running through our culture where people are resentful of what they don’t have more so than they are grateful for what they do have.
Things can always be better, but they can also always be worse.
2 reasons, broadly.
One is that gdp per capita (or any measure) does not capture everything. A basic lifestyle is not necessarily any more affordable/accessible than in past decades,
The second (bigger) reason is comparison. Comparison relative to expectations, peers, parents. There are negative aume games here.
For example: class mobility. If some people outdo their parents’ position on socioeconomic ladder… others will have moved down the ladder. Moving down the ladder is rough.
Also… when things go well, we often fall out over the split. This happens among founder of companies, and it happens to societies. The crisis of the Roman Republic was basically this.
Definitely worth reading. This is the really important bit. But read the article to understand **why** this is so frequent.
>Yes, used cars can still be very nice cars, and there is evidence that building more high-end housing [can lower prices](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/housing-crisis-rich-poor-building/686086/) by increasing overall supply, but middle-class America is used-car America. The shiny new thing? That’s for someone else.
>The result can be a constant sense that you’re a second-class citizen. You check into hotels eyeing the shorter Gold check-in line. You ride in the rental shuttle past the Preferred kiosk, where the frequent travelers just grab their keys and go.
>Or, much more consequentially, you move to a new city and find that the wait to get established with a new doctor can stretch for months — unless you are able to pay the high monthly fee for concierge medicine. Then you can be seen right away, perhaps with a bonus offer of Botox for the middle-aged patient.
>And what if you live in a city that the top 10 percent love? Well, then even being upper middle class doesn’t feel affluent at all. Six-figure salaries purchase shoe-box apartments, and everything from groceries to gas costs an absurd amount. Soon enough, you’re googling the real estate prices in Chattanooga or Des Moines — surely it’s cheaper there — whether or not you intend to ever leave.
>In this context, “affordability” doesn’t just refer to the cost of a specific good (or even necessarily the rate of inflation at any given time) but rather to the price of entry into what should feel like a normal American life — one that includes baseball games with the kids, a doctor on call, a home you like, and, at the very least, a basic sense that you haven’t been left behind.
TLDR on why it’s happening is that most of the actual money is spent by the top 10% of income earners, so the marketing and the services get aimed at them, not normal people.
But everyone sees the marketing and the results of the services targetted at the top end. And they compare themselves, and feel bad.