4 Comments

Nice work! Very informative and great sources to back up your claims. I hope that everyone who reads this makes it all the way through. The economy is doing better and more people need to realize it rather than rely on gas prices or the color red/blue to determine if our country is thriving or in turmoil..

“Economies are for people, not money” is a powerful statement that many businesses need to realize. This is part of what pushed me to go back to school. I want to strive to help change current work culture and influence our version of capitalism to benefit everyone and not just a small percentage.

Do you think that part of happiness growth in jobs has to do with the improvements over time making college education easier to obtain? My thinking is this has given many opportunities to go after something they are interested in rather than settling for what job they can get just to avoid crippling debt. It’s far from perfect, but I hope the US continues to improve our education system. Another point that I feel influences that chart is the growth in work from home jobs. Some are permanent work from home, while others I know have options to work from home so many days a month. I believe it really helps manage people’s work-life balance.

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I’m gonna have to dig more into the why are people happier question. I will say the flip from downward trend to upward trend started in 2010 and has steadily improved each year. If you see the chart on unemployment, I do think it’s worth noting that unemployment has steadily been coming down since that time, meaning more and more Americans have been reliably employed (except for 2020). When unemployment is low, companies have to work harder to keep their employees. I’d also like to point out that the uninsured rate and poverty rates have hit record lows recently, meaning fewer Americans in poverty and fewer without adequate healthcare. Over the past year, healthcare costs have come down some in part because of the Inflation Reduction Act, insulin in particular being about $35/month rather than $400/month. I also think that the higher access to remote work due to increased access to broadband internet and more companies embracing it has helped like you said. I think that might also be related to the low unemployment encouraging employers to find more ways to attract and keep workers.

I think there are a lot of ways where workers lives have gotten better since 2010. Over the last year, every category the study measured had an increase. That suggests to me that employees are happier about a lot of different things. I hope that answers your question. 😊

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It does! Thank you

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Hey Jason, thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end. I’m glad you felt like there was value and truth in what I said. For what it’s worth, I do feel the evidence shows most Americans use facts, not party, to decide if the country is doing well. That’s why I wanted to start talking about the data more, because for some people gas prices, what their friends say, and an occasional headline is the only data they get. These are good Americans who want the best for our country, they just also want to live their lives.

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