On Wednesday, Gallup reported the public has never been more optimistic about personal financial prospects. A day later, it announced that we’ve also achieved record satisfaction in our personal lives.
In the past eight years, the number of people reporting that they’re satisfied in their personal lives has increased from 78% to 90%, a higher figure than Gallup has ever reported in its 41 years of studying this metric.
Politicians left and right (although nowadays mostly left) and their agents in the media may warn that the economy has left us behind and the social fabric is unraveling. “Only I can fix it!” Trump told Republicans four years ago. ‘We need a revolution to transform the country fundamentally,’ Bernie Sanders has said for years.
But the numbers just don’t show it. Personal satisfaction is widespread. Happiness is not at all reserved to the elite.
At 96%, the demographic reporting the highest satisfaction in their personal lives are those earning six figures, closely followed by Republicans, married folks, and college graduates — all at 93%. But those earning anywhere between $40,000 and $100,000 annually still report a 92% satisfaction rate in their personal lives, and 66% of these also say they are very satisfied in their personal lives, just 10 points behind the six-figure earners. Unsurprisingly, those earning under $40,000 annually reported a lower satisfaction rate than their higher-earning counterparts, but not by much. Four in 5 people making less than $40,000 per year said they’re satisfied with their personal lives, and a majority report being “very satisfied.” (The study did not clarify whether respondents were categorized on individual or household income.)
Other than the lowest-income people, the most unsatisfied demographics, who all still reported satisfaction rates above 85%, were unmarried people, women, nonwhites, and Democrats.
Blue voters may loathe their much-reviled Orange Man in the Oval, but when 86% of them claim they’re satisfied with their personal lives and 60% of them predict their personal financial situation will be even better one year from now, it’s hard to argue that they need a revolution to unmake American capitalism and society.
Politicians have used fear to increase the size and scope of government power since civilization began. They will keep trying, but it’s hard to do that when we’re living in the greatest time in the greatest country in human history.
