I guess it’s all relative …
Great article from Market Watch:
It may not feel like it lately, and you certainly won’t read about it much in the media, but there’s a plenty to appreciate out there.
Life on Earth has, in fact, improved in many notable, if underappreciated, ways: We’re living longer, extreme poverty has plunged, education and freedom continue to spread — the list goes on.
This chart sums up some of the highlights:
But humans have a strong negativity bias, so we tend to focus on the bad stuff. Comedian Louis C.K. captured that concept in one of his classic bits.
“When I read things like ‘the foundations of capitalism are shattering,’ I’m like, maybe we need that. Maybe we need some time where we’re walking around with a donkey with pots clanging on the sides.” he once said. “Because everything is amazing right now and nobody’s happy. … In my lifetime, the changes in the world have been incredible. Now we live in an amazing, amazing world, and it’s wasted on the crappiest generation of just spoiled idiots that don’t care.”
The chart and Louis C.K. comments pretty much sum it up, but read the rest of the Market Watch article to get the entire story. The thing that struck me is that those who complain about how much less happy we are in the United States itemize problems that could be mitigated through individual choice, which we are afforded in a free society. They seem to think that government should solve all of our problems.
– If you hate traffic, move somewhere that doesn’t have much.
– If you are truly unhappy with your job, start your own business.
– If you are really unhappy with politicians, run for office and try to change things.
– If you are financially insecure, remember that tomorrow is another day, and you have opportunities to improve your lot.
The author’s conclusion:
“As people no longer have to work all day and think about where their next meal is coming from, they will be at a loss as to how to fill their waking hours, and will be vulnerable to debauchery, insanity, suicide, and the sway of religious and political fanatics,” Pinker wrote in one of his books. “Fifty years later, it seems to me that we have solved the boredom crisis (or was it an epidemic?) and are instead experiencing the (apocryphal) Chinese curse of living in interesting times.”
Yes, perhaps too interesting.
Stella's Place 
THere’s a problem here. “They seem to think the government should solve all of our problems.” He says that as if it were somehow profound. I believe it would be safe to say that the Government CAUSES more than half the really serious problems, and I am being deliberately conservative in that estimate. They control how the roads and traffic work, how the economy-job market-wages-employment work. They control how electricity works, how planes fly, how you can buy a house, how you can drive your car, and they desperately want to control the air you breath. The water you drink, well they already control that too. I think if we want to fix something we need to fix Government and we damn sure cannot do it from the inside. We have to force the USELESS human trash we elect to do their damn jobs.
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That part was mine, not his. The indented part in italics came from the original article.
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Doc, are you on the newsletter email lists for your U. S. Senators and your Representative? How about your state senators and reps? If not, be sure to set it up so you’ll know what they are doing and be able to contact them on a consistent basis with words of support or disagreement and suggestions. As for your local school district or city council, make sure you know when they meet and become a participant if you’re able.
Happily, my federal, state and local governmental bodies and reps are Republican and generally conservative. We can’t be complacent, however; and they still need to be checked upon. They actually appreciate knowing whether or not they’re doing a good job for the people.
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“It may not feel like it lately, and you certainly won’t read about it much in the media, but there’s a plenty to appreciate out there.” The challenge is to be ever-vigilant in both discovering the things to appreciate and the things to be working against in order to preserve our freedom. The more we’re around negative people who are not looking for solutions, the worse off we’ll be mentally and spiritually.
Case in point…we all know how our young people are being negatively indoctrinated…
Black National Teacher of the Year spewed hatred of America in TEDx talk to high-schoolers
By M. Catharine Evans – May 1, 2019
On November 17, 2018, Rodney Robinson, who was just named 2019 National Teacher of the Year, spoke at a TEDx youth conference in Richmond, Virginia.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/04/black_national_teacher_of_the_year_spews_hatred_of_america_in_tedx_talk_to_highschoolers.html
At the moment his YT, “Youth: Powerfully Unfiltered | Rodney Robinson | TEDxYouth@RVA” published December 12, 2018, has 1,051 views with 23 up votes and 22 down. So perhaps he’s not effective as he thinks he is or would like to be. It’s pretty obvious to me that he’s one of the brainwashed and wants to pass it on to the next generation…psychopathic behavior, perhaps?
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