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What A Day

Americans Should Be Happy, But They're Not

5/18/202619 min

It's rather obvious Americans have not exactly been … cheerful for the last few years. And it's showing up in the data – the General Social Survey, the Consumer Sentiment Survey from the University of Michigan, the World Happiness Report, and even the Federal Reserve all report that Americans are less happy than they were a decade ago. Whether that's with their jobs, the economy, the state of the world – no matter the metric, Americans are not having it. To find out why we're feeling down, we spoke with Derek Thompson. He's the co-author of the book "Abundance," and he writes a popular Substack called, well, Derek Thompson.

And in headlines, President Donald Trump is once again threatening Iran via Truth Social, House Speaker Mike Johnson talks about the administration's priorities, and Taiwan's president stresses the importance of arms purchases from the United States.

Show Notes:

Clips

Affordability vs. Aspiration
Inflation’s Sudden Shock
Toxic Individualism Era
Measuring A Squishy Feeling
Crisis Fatigue Scroll
Happiness As Murder Mystery

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Jane Coaston· Host0:00

    [upbeat music] It's Monday, May 18th. I'm Jane Coaston, and this is What Today, a show enjoying this response from former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's corporate road trip reality show adventure. Here's Buttigieg on CNN Sunday discussing the time he too took a road trip.

  2. Pete Buttigieg· Soundbite0:20

    I love road trips. I love America. Uh, I actually took a, a taxpayer-funded road trip lasting about seven months. Uh, it was in Afghanistan.

  3. Jane Coaston· Host0:28

    Sean Duffy, of course, never went to Afghanistan, but he did spend time as a lumberjack before going on the Real World Boston, where he compared a Black woman to Hitler. [upbeat music] On today's show, President Donald Trump continues to threaten Iran via social media. How presidential. And Trump debuts a new superlative for one of his critics, the worst Republican congressman in history. Place your bets on who that might be in the comments. But let's start with happiness or a lack thereof. It's easy to say that Americans have not exactly been cheerful for the last few years. It's even showing up in the data. The General Social Survey, the Consumer Sentiment Survey from the University of Michigan, the World Happiness Report, and even the Federal Reserve all say that Americans are less happy than they were a decade ago. Whether that's about their jobs, the economy, the state of the world, no matter the metric, Americans are not having it. The question is, why? Why, after roughly

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