Is the bad economy all in our heads?

Here is a fascinating and informative article about how many Americans say that they’re pretty much okay, but regard the economy as lamentable or worse.

Maybe it has something to do with politics, but writer Derek Thompson adds this:

Something deeper is happening. Even outside economics and finances, a record-high gap has opened up between Americans’ personal attitudes and their evaluations of the country. In early 2022, Gallup found that Americans’ satisfaction with “the way things are going in personal life” neared a 40-year high, even as their satisfaction with “the way things are going in the U.S.” neared a 40-year low. On top of the old and global tendency to assume most people are doing worse than they say they are is a growing American tendency to be catastrophically gloomy about the direction of this country, even as we’re resiliently sunny about our own household’s future.

As the song says, “Don’t worry, be happy.” Or, as Alfred E. Neuman declares in Mad Magazine, “What, me worry?”

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