Are the children okay? The annual World Happiness Report was released this week, and for the first time in the more than decade since the report was released, the United States failed to rank among the top 20 happiest countries.
The findings, which are based on Gallup survey data on self-reported happiness, show that Americans aged 30 and under are responsible for the lower average. “Americans aged 30 and under rank 62nd globally in terms of well-being,” he reported The Wall Street Journal, “behind the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Guatemala. Older Americans ranked 10th.” (The Nordic countries, a handful of Western European nations, Costa Rica, and Lithuania all rank above us in the overall happiness ranking not separated by age.)
“Today’s young people report feeling less supported by friends and family, less free to make life choices, more stressed and less satisfied with their living conditions,” according to the report’s editor’s comment to Axios. A perhaps representative tweet:
It turns out that living in a garbage country that doesn’t care for its people and bombs the rest of the world makes people unhappy pic.twitter.com/Vsp1muyqlT
— Cabral (@doctor_cabral) March 20, 2024
This comes on the heels of Jonathan Haidt’s long speech Atlantic presents “End the Phone-Based Childhood Now,” which blames mental health problems on cultural and technological changes that have pushed kids away from gaming and toward their devices.
Part of this may be attributable to younger generations struggling to find meaning in their lives – perhaps a temporary failure, which will not plague them for the rest of their days – and who take for granted the enormous, world-altering advances they have inherited. . Or it could be that they are legitimately sick, en masse, or it could be a combination of all of the above.
But it is worth reflecting on the progress we have made. Work today is, on average, safer, less physically demanding, and more intellectually stimulating than work 30 or 50 years ago. Money in a sense buys a certain level of happiness, and our level of wealth and economic freedom in America is nothing to be scoffed at. “As many traditional, tangible sources of suffering disappear, the expectation increases that we should feel good all the time; when we don’t, we suddenly start talking in psychiatric terms, even though stress and sadness are part of a good life, ” wrote Johan Norberg for Reason last year.
That’s not to ignore the legitimate reasons why young people in particular may be struggling: Schools have reported massive pandemic-induced learning losses and increased problems with disciplinary infractions. Math test scores and reading proficiency rates are struggling across the United States. But it’s possible that too much weight is being given to the happiness report and that part of the problem lies in the expectations of young adults. After all, it is the former Soviets who have seen huge gains in happiness rankings, perhaps in part because their material conditions have drastically improved, but also because people appreciate the fact that prosperity and abundance are not certainties.
Copycat states: Earlier this week, Reason covered SB 4, the law that hasn’t yet gone into effect but is currently in court, which would allow Texas law enforcement to arrest those who crossed the southern border illegally. Iowa lawmakers passed a copycat piece of legislation Tuesday that would make it a state crime for an illegal immigrant to enter Iowa after being deported.
Now other states are playing with similar laws. Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri are all considering similar bills, but the success of this strategy depends largely on what happens to the Texas law, the legality of which will most likely be assessed by the Supreme Court. Republican lawmakers in West Virginia, Mississippi and Arizona all attempted to pass similar laws but faced opposition — such as, in Arizona’s case, a Democratic governor’s veto — that thwarted their efforts.
It seems unlikely that any state that sets its own deportation policy will hold up legally, but that’s not to say that stunt laws won’t work to curry favor with Republican voters and further embarrass the Biden administration, which has struggled to rein in the border influx.
Scenes from New York: More information may emerge about this viral dispute between a property owner and some alleged squatters, but it’s a pretty stunning example of what happens when a company fails to enforce property rights:
How can you have a functioning society if it fails to protect property rights (and invents ridiculous concepts like “squatters’ rights”)? https://t.co/3lbc5cYGeI
— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) March 20, 2024
QUICK SHOTS
- Although around 200,000 people left Hong Kong between mid-2019 and 2022, they have been somewhat replaced by mainland Chinese professionals flocking to the island, where they may have slightly more political freedom than they are accustomed to and get higher pay. “If China is a big ship, then Hong Kong is a lifeboat,” said Will Wu, a banker who relocated from the mainland. The New York Times. It’s a good thing that mainland Chinese think this way, because most Hongkongers feel like the boat is taking on water.
- “Today, the teenage babysitter as we knew her, in pop culture and in reality, has all but disappeared.” (From The Atlantic.)
- Possible updates coming in the legal saga of Julian Assange (which Reason has it covered Just ask questions):
NEWS: The Justice Department is considering allowing Julian Assange to plead guilty to a reduced charge of mishandling classified information, opening the possibility of a deal that would end a long legal saga sparked by one of the biggest confidential story leaks https://t.co /7Z0DtjHvhG
— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) March 20, 2024
- Has the pandemic changed our eating habits and spending in a lasting way? The signs seem to be pointing towards YES:
Even with inflation adjusted, Americans are simply spending much more on food than before the pandemic: eating out more, buying more expensive things, or relying more on restaurants and delivery. pic.twitter.com/ehOqnoIpXB
— Matteo Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 21, 2024
- “The Swiss National Bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, moving months ahead of its global peers as policymakers seek to prevent the franc’s gains,” it reported Bloomberg. “The SNB’s move foreshadows possible easing by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank later this year, easing upward pressure on the franc and reducing the need for officials to resort to interventions that could further inflate their large budget”.
- The Somali pirates are back.
- Problems with forensics:
Yes, even fingerprints, which have been used for 200 years, are much less reliable than the public imagines and when we get to the analysis of bites it’s all bullshit. https://t.co/ffPJn4apQK
– Alex Tabarrok ????️ (@ATAbarrok) March 20, 2024