By David Leonhardt and Ashley Wu
A politically diverse group of scholars — who together have advised every president since Bill Clinton and who work at many of the country’s top think tanks — last week released a report card on American well-being. The scholars spent months debating which metrics best captured the state of the nation and ultimately agreed on 37. They then tracked those measures since the 1990s and compared the United States with dozens of other countries on economic performance, physical health, mental health, social trust and more.
The U.S. economy has outperformed most of its competitors, in terms of productive might and innovation, the group found. But this success has not led to rapidly rising living standards for most Americans.
“We’re so wealthy but so unhappy,” said Bradley Birzer, a historian at Hillsdale College, a Christian school in Michigan. “It seems like the central question of modernity.” Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, put it this way: “We are the richest country in the world, but we chronically fail to offer broad-based economic prosperity and security.”
Economic growth in the U.S. has been remarkable, at least compared with growth in other high-income countries. In 1990, per capita gross domestic product in the U.S. — the total value of the country’s output, divided by the number of residents — was only 28% higher than in the euro area. The gap is now more than 80%.
Yet comparisons in most other realms make the U.S. look much worse.
This country has the lowest life expectancy of any wealthy country, which was not true for most of the 20th century. The U.S. has the highest murder rate of any rich country and the world’s highest rate of fatal drug overdoses. It also has one of the lowest rates of trust in the federal government and among the highest rates of youth depression and single-parent families. When Americans are asked how satisfied they are with their own lives, the U.S. ranks lower than it did three decades ago.
The committee that released the report did not offer detailed explanations for these trends, nor did it suggest policy solutions. The group was too diverse to agree on many of those questions. But The New York Times invited all 14 members of the group to offer their own explanations, and five themes emerged.
1. GDP above all
Government policy and American culture prioritize economic growth in many ways. Taxes are relatively low, especially on the wealthy. Americans work long hours and celebrate risk-taking. The U.S. has a uniquely strong venture-capital sector.
The country is simply less focused on public health and happiness. “The United States for some time now prioritized economic growth at any cost,” said Patrick Sharkey, a sociologist at Princeton University. One example that he mentioned: a high murder rate that stems from lax gun laws and concentrations of extreme poverty. Many other countries have much lower rates. The U.S. has chosen to accept a high one.
It’s a reminder that the main drivers of happiness and well-being are less tied to economic conditions than people sometimes assume, noted Ariel Kalil, an economist at the University of Chicago.
2. ‘Pulling apart’
Perhaps the most common theme the researchers mentioned involves social isolation.
Americans spend less time in group activities, be they sports leagues, labor union meetings or church gatherings. Teenagers spend less time dating or hanging out. Adults and children alike spend hours every day staring at their phones, often wearing headphones. COVID-19 aggravated this isolation, and some social behaviors — such as working from an office or eating in restaurants — have not fully recovered. Political polarization can make people uncomfortable with neighbors who have different opinions.
“If there is one overarching theme, it’s that we’re pulling apart — economically, socially and politically,” said Douglas Harris, a Tulane University economist who came up with the idea for the report card. Frederick Hess, an education expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank, said he thinks the disconnect between GDP and other outcomes was related to “the weakening bonds of community and the degree to which Americans feel less rooted in close-knit bonds of faith and family.”
3. Inequality
Most of the report’s measures capture average outcomes. But the United States is such an unequal country that averages often misrepresent the typical person’s experience. “The strong economic performance has principally provided gains for the wealthiest 10%,” said Joseph Romm of the University of Pennsylvania.
As a result, progress has slowed for millions of people, even as they hear that the economy is stronger than it has ever been. The combination leaves Americans feeling that it’s their own fault if they are not succeeding, said Gary Hoover, a Tulane economist. As Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution put it, many people “have lost their life narratives.”
4. Affluence itself
“Many of the problems we have reflect our very affluence,” said Scott Winship of the American Enterprise Institute. An abundance of food contributes to obesity. Rising incomes enable people to afford smartphones that contribute to isolation. And rising incomes mean that people no longer need to rely on friends, relatives or even spouses as much as they once did.
“Our brains evolved for a world of scarcity, and the kind of abundance we are experiencing now is a mismatch for our ancient wiring,” said Anna Lembke, a Stanford University psychiatrist. “In this world in which everything has been more potent, more accessible, more novel and more bountiful, we’re prone to overconsume and make ourselves sick.”
5. Bad luck
Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute argued that Americans’ negative perceptions are inconsistent with society’s underlying strength — and that some of the country’s biggest problems are likely to end soon. “In recent years, the United States has been rocked by a once-in-a-century financial crisis and recession, a once-in-a-century pandemic and a bout of severe price inflation,” Strain said. “That is going to affect the national mood.”
If he is right about that, the national mood may well improve in the coming years. Most other scholars on the panel were less optimistic.
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