America Sets Record for Decline in Well-Being
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Live Science reports America’s well-being took a major hit in 2017. Gallup-Sharecare has been conducting a well-being poll of US residents for a decade, and for the first time ever no state’s well-being increased from the previous year.
On the contrary, 21 states saw their well-being decline between 2016 and 2017—a record. Overall, the US’ well-being score dropped from 62.1 (out of 100) in 2016 to 61.5 in 2017. The size of the year-over-year drop is another record.
Read: Annihilation, Devastation and a Madman Between Us
The South and West saw the biggest declines in well-being, with residents reporting more worrying, less “positive energy” from others, and more diagnoses of depression. Here are the 21 states where our well-being declined in 2017:
- Washington
- Oregon
- California
- Nevada
- Arizona
- Texas
- Alaska
- Hawaii
- Missouri
- Arkansas
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Florida
- Georgia
- South Carolina
- North Carolina
- Virginia
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- New Jersey
- Maine
Researchers say there are many reasons for such a decline, however, one of them coincides with the election of Donald Trump and the constant barrage of bad, and even frightening news, on an almost daily basis.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
Obviously these are largely subjective impressions and haven’t we all been subjected to the decades long attack on such feelings? Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Fallwell — Fox news TV religion and the Republican party have been screaming Disaster every day and all night trying to get us to do something stupid to fix a problem they invented for the purpose. The economy under Obama was steadily improving. Fox Folk believe it was disastrous and getting worse. That’s only one small example, but I have to admit, nasty, stupid and deceitful though it is, it works.
“Der christliche Entschluß, die Welt häßlich und schlecht zu finden, hat die Welt häßlich und schlecht gemacht.”
The Christian decision to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad
Friedrich Nietzsche
It has not, in my memory, been this bad. I wake up in the morning depressed at the thought of the Big Pig squatting in the People’s House, and that’s before I turn on the news.