skews13
Diamond Member
- Mar 18, 2017
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This still-young 21st-century has been a gloomy time for Americans. In January 2000, 69% of us, according to the polling and analytical firm Gallup, were satisfied with “the way things are going in the U.S.” Optimism has slid rather steadily ever since, and now just 22% of us are satisfied.
Little wonder. Over almost 25 years — an entire generation — we’ve had the trauma of 9/11, the two longest wars in U.S. history, devastating bear markets between 2000-2002 (when the S&P 500 plunged 57% and the Nasdaq shed 78%), plus both a housing and stock-market collapse just a few years later that wiped out trillions in wealth. This “Great Recession” of 2008 was, many economists thought, the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Now add the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago that killed more than 1 million Americans, wiped out, in two horrific months, some 22 million jobs, and helped spark a burst of inflation that has only recently subsided.
It’s no coincidence that over this same period, the U.S. political divide has widened, with people on both sides of the spectrum arguing bitterly over our future. And it’s no coincidence that over this same period, institutional trust in just about everything has fallen precipitously. We don’t seem to trust anyone, other than those with whom we’re predisposed to agree with.
Much of this anger and distrust is aimed at Washington, D.C. I live here and in my travels, people tell me all the time that “Washington doesn’t work,” and that “nobody there can ever get anything done.” Of course, the elected representatives who are in Washington are invariably sent by the same folks who complain that nothing ever gets done.
So Washington, D.C. doesn’t work. You know what does? America itself. The country as a whole is doing better than the media or our politicians tell us. America, it seems, is humming along. Here are a few important examples:
Little wonder. Over almost 25 years — an entire generation — we’ve had the trauma of 9/11, the two longest wars in U.S. history, devastating bear markets between 2000-2002 (when the S&P 500 plunged 57% and the Nasdaq shed 78%), plus both a housing and stock-market collapse just a few years later that wiped out trillions in wealth. This “Great Recession” of 2008 was, many economists thought, the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Now add the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago that killed more than 1 million Americans, wiped out, in two horrific months, some 22 million jobs, and helped spark a burst of inflation that has only recently subsided.
It’s no coincidence that over this same period, the U.S. political divide has widened, with people on both sides of the spectrum arguing bitterly over our future. And it’s no coincidence that over this same period, institutional trust in just about everything has fallen precipitously. We don’t seem to trust anyone, other than those with whom we’re predisposed to agree with.
Much of this anger and distrust is aimed at Washington, D.C. I live here and in my travels, people tell me all the time that “Washington doesn’t work,” and that “nobody there can ever get anything done.” Of course, the elected representatives who are in Washington are invariably sent by the same folks who complain that nothing ever gets done.
So Washington, D.C. doesn’t work. You know what does? America itself. The country as a whole is doing better than the media or our politicians tell us. America, it seems, is humming along. Here are a few important examples:
