After 250 Years, Are America's Best Days Still Ahead? ^65.7%

Reason.com - By Steven Greenhut - 7/3/2026, 11:30 AM

Negativity Bias 35.6% - Anecdotal 27.8% - Hasty Generalization 23.1%

Waiting in gas lines and listening to President Jimmy Carter tell us to turn down the thermostat are among my most distinct memories growing up during the 1970s malaise. I was thrilled to buy my first home in the early 1980s with an 11 percent interest rate, having fallen from its 19 percent peak. Americans wax poetic about lost factory... more