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Are they, though? I agree that according to metrics like GDP per capita or unemployment, things are rosy.
But the introduction of smart phones and other digital content has taken our collective mental health to all-time lows. I just read "Boys in the Boat", which was set during the peak of the Great Depression. College students then had a standard of living that was worse than the average Burger King worker today. But, can we really argue that today's 20 year old is better off than the equivalent in 1936? I'm not sure.
Economists puzzle over the "Vibecession", not realizing that more money fails to fill the giant gaping hole in people's hearts. The average person spends like 12 hours a day behind a screen and has 2 friends. Things are fucked, and more money can't solve it.
It's not the economy, stupid.
Unfortunately, people on the Motte tend to live in the same economic bubbles that most Silicon Valley liberals do. For the lower classes things are not ok. They are barely hanging on. For most of America, this “greatest economy ever” and “vibesecession” stuff is a load of obvious horse shit.
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Part of the problem with using GDP and U3 unemployment numbers is that it really doesn’t capture the truth of the economy. If you’re not rich enough to be upper class, the economy isn’t all that great for you. Grocery and gas prices have gone up by a lot since 2020, the pay that you take home hasn’t kept pace. We have a crisis in the housing market where most people under 40 have no chance of buying a house (which for most people is the only way to build generational wealth), a student loan crisis in which has people pay 20% of their salary for decades for a college degree that isn’t necessarily worth it, and so if you’re in a position where you need to get on the economic ladder, it’s a lot harder to get started.
The vibesession isn’t really vibes. It’s an anomaly in the data collection which doesn’t capture the economy of the prole classes who are really struggling to maintain what used to be a reasonable lifestyle. I think the gap between the reported measurements and the real economy are deliberate attempts to hide a bad economy from the public.
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A point could be made that the enormous, vast level of wealth that Americans possess hasn't made them happier (though I feel like Americans are happier and less neurotic than Europeans), but I don't think Trump is making that point or really has solid ideas to change that.
You have to specify which Europeans, but having been all over Northern Europe for the past twosomething years after a long stint in the US, this really does not align with my impressions. Sure, the Germans (and to a lesser degree everyone else) have a contingent that has mentally spiralled into climate doomsdayism, but those are still way outnumbered by tribalism doomers in the US (just look at this forum!) and on average I just see more random people having more friends, hanging out with them more, and more of the sort of existential slack that makes people take 2-month vacations, backpack or go back to university for some wacky self-actualisation degree at age 50, while typical Americans are desperately hustling to keep/advance their social standing, make rent and fill their array of anxiolytic prescriptions.
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