Friends, the results of this CDC survey on "life satisfaction" are most interesting, and broadly confirm what we already knew: that being poor stinks, but being rich doesn't necessarily convey any more happiness than being merely comfortable. What's most stunning to me is how few Americans -- only about 5% -- are dissatisfied with life. Oh really? Then why are almost half of women on anti-depressants? I guess another way to look at it is: those mind-altering medications must really be doing their job!
https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/money-happiness-health/2023/11/02/id/1140732/
In other news, pollsters continue to churn out more data on what the presidential race will look like, if it's a two-way, three-way, or four-way contest. The results are varied, but what they tend to show is that a three-way race (adding Kennedy) may hurt Trump, but a four-way race propels Trump either into the lead or into a statistical tie. My guess would be that a lot of pollsters are probably skeptical that Kennedy and West will keep their relatively high levels of support throughout the campaign...but dissatisfaction with Trump and Biden as candidates is high, so you never know.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I grew up on a blue collar street in an otherwise quite well to do suburb; most of my friends were from families with real nice houses and cars, second houses etc. My guess is that the affluent would be unhappy to live with the ample benefits my pipe fitter father provided us. The prosperity and resultant material well being available to almost everyone in America ( eg. any modern supermarket) is historically unprecedented and still does not obtain in much of the world.It is understandable though, for people accustomed to such miraculous good fortune to think it routine and to fail to see in it mitigation of the personal ills which obtain in everyday problems. My generation, the boomers, manifests much perfectionism ( why? I do not know), the inevitable frustration of which depresses a good many.Humanity has never before experienced such abundance and we who have it provide a labority for assessing it. One thing is for sure; it beats the alternative all to hell.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Pollsters should perhaps leave analysis of the putatively objective empirical evidence they gather to others.It appears obvious that some "pollsters"use methods tending to yield results they wish to see for biased politically partisan reasons. I know you make extensive use of polls and am confident you can tell the difference between bigoted and honest, objective polling.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: The" destroy Trump at any cost" crowd no doubt practices polling reflecting that intent.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: The far left made haste to denounce guache American post WWII prosperity.Eg. Arthur Miller in Death of a Salesman and Pete Seeger in the song Little Boxes, sneered at the blessed and redeeming abundance available to those who had suffered the Depression and WWII. Those "Little Boxes" were a luxury so many in the city slums had never expected and Willy Loman was at least able to buy his own house, unlike so very many in Europe. But then along posthaste came my boomers, rescued by the Greatest Generation from the travails it had borne and consequently tragically naive about their miraculous good fortune. Our response, though not by any means from all of us, was detestable and still shocking ingratitude and contempt for our unprecedented material well being. Why Arthur and Pete must have "felt"great satisfaction! Perhaps many of that ilk in my generation have finally "awoken", yes? Perhaps that explains in part those poll results
ReplyDeleteYes, Jack, Americans are blissfully ignorant of most of the blessings they enjoy. No wonder we're such an entitled lot!
ReplyDeleteAh, I wish I could "tell the difference" between a bogus and a valid poll. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's hard. We all tend to gravitate towards the polls that tell us what we want to hear...and sometimes what we want to hear is the truth! In the end, the polls, especially the aggregate of all the polls, tell us most of what we need to know about the majority of elections -- but, given how closely divided this country is, they probably won't tell us what we most want to know: who's gonna win in '24!
Jack, there's no doubt that the Boomers have moved to the political right, especially compared to when they came of age, but to what precisely they've "awoken" I'm not sure. Possibly, in a small way, to the iniquity of their own handiwork?
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I think everyday life, with its challenges and rewards, upon which so many reluctant boomers embarked with bemusement and some disdain for themselves, has "awoken" many of the radicalized boomers to the . . . dah, dah - dah dah dah. . . eh, utility of common sense itself. Of course for many of them this is the first time humanity has had such an unprecedented experience and they would, as they always have, show the way! Oh well, that beats their disgraceful affair with marxism.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Sure, being a boomer in the 60s is fun to remember in some ways. But I get a little short with those of us who extol our generation. Sorry, but that pusillanimous leftist compromised faction of my generation ( including myself for an interlude) owes our country a heavy debt for the political, social, legal and cultural degradation it casually visited upon our land. It is specially culpable for its everlastingly shocking contempt( eg. any episode of All in the Family or the Monkees' screed Pleasant Valley Sunday and any number of far more serious presumptuous offenses, eg. the enthronement of the Clintons, who are exemplary of leftist boomer ingratitude) for the truly Greatest Generation. Too bad so many of those solid citizens are no longer around to see those boomers age and maybe even express some regret.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Father Time and Mother Nature have worked their inexorable will on the radical boomers. It cracks me up it does; they who put so much stock in their Promethean youth (Age of Aquarius etc) are now getting truly old. And what do they have to show for it? Mostly dysfunction and shameful status as the most ungrateful and destructive generation of all. Although. . . alot of these current college punks have in the last month given us a reprise of radical boomer perfidy.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Jack, that the Boomers once reveled in their youth. In a perverse way, they still do. Their ongoing attempts to underline their coolness and vitality are growing increasingly desperate and pathetic.
ReplyDelete