Your happiness & the rising costs of inflation
'It's a mystery to me why someone would vote for another four years of Biden administration policies'
American happiness is in a freefall, and there’s a direct link to one area: economics.
In 2022 research by Oracle, at least one-third to one-half of Americans have outright confessed they have forgotten what it means to be “truly happy”: “27% of Americans surveyed said they couldn’t remember what it meant to be ‘truly happy,’ 45% of Americans surveyed said it had been more than two years since they last felt ‘true happiness.'”
Have the past two years helped happiness trends? Unfortunately, not.
Gallup reported earlier this year, “For just the third time in more than two decades, less than half of Americans say they are ‘very satisfied’ with the way things are going in their personal lives. The 47% of U.S. adults expressing high satisfaction with their lives has edged down 3 percentage points over the past year and is only 1 point higher than the 2011 record low for the trend.”
Gallup concluded, “Americans are currently less satisfied with their personal lives than they have been since 2011, whether that is based on the percentage satisfied or very satisfied. This lower satisfaction level coincides with weak economic confidence” [emphasis mine].
Though I’ve never believed government can provide for anyone’s happiness, it definitely can make it harder to experience happiness when Washington D.C.’s policies, regulations, out-of-control spending and borrowing place more restrictions on our lives, freedoms and pocketbook.
Chief among Washington’s negative influences have been the soaring prices of everything (highest in 40 years), particularly since Mr. Biden and Kamala Harris took office in 2021. They have produced what Gallup calls, “Weak economic confidence,” and there’s no end in site.
Here’s how overall inflation looks over the past 10 years:
While the White House keeps saying inflation is “cooling,” check out this statistic: Of the nearly 400 items the Bureau and Labor Statistics (BLS) tracks, about 2 in 3 (or 67%) increased in price between June 2023 and 2024. Almost 300 out of the 400 items tracked increased MORE in price in just this past year, and those doesn’t include the increases from the last three years! That’s not exactly what I would call an inflation freeze!
According to BLS, these are the prices that increased most over the past year:
In particular, the costs of groceries continue to skyrocket, rob and hurt American homes the most.
The Washington Post reported, “Grocery prices have jumped by 25% over the past four years, outpacing overall inflation of 19% during the same period.”
The Post explained, “Stubbornly high grocery prices represent a critical drain on the finances of tens of millions of people and remain, along with housing, perhaps the most persistent economic challenge for the Biden administration as it tries to convince Americans the economy is back on solid footing. For all the attention on gas prices and housing, more than two-thirds of voters say inflation has hit them hardest through higher food prices, according to a November 2023 survey by Yahoo Finance/Ipsos. That’s more than 50 percentage points higher than any other category.”
To add insult to injury, the average American consumer now carries $6,329 in credit card debt! Why? “People are stretched,” experts say (“High inflation made finances worse for 65% of Americans last year”).
Trump was exactly right this past week: “People are going to vote [for the next president] with their stomachs.” That is, their high grocery bills will guide them how to choose a next president.
That’s why I honestly say it’s a mystery to me why someone would vote for another four years of the Biden administration policies through Kamala Harris, who will give us what type of economic plan? You guessed it: more of the same. In fact, financial analysts are saying it could be even worse than Biden’s.
With millions of American homes crippled by economic inflation, is it really any surprise that both drinking and drug abuse are also soaring across the nation? Why? Because people want to be happier. They want to escape their financial problems.
Worst of all, of course, is the drug and opioid epidemic, now being led by fentanyl, the usage of which has gone through the roof, including for minorities and adolescents.
The American Medical Association reported, “The nation’s drug overdose epidemic continues to change and become worse. The epidemic affects every state and now is driven by illicit fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, methamphetamine, and cocaine, often in combination or in adulterated forms.”
Roughly 100,000 deaths are reported in the U.S. from drug overdose each year, and another roughly 88,000 people die of alcohol-related causes every year in the United States.
Data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicate there were an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in the United States during 2023 alone.
As devastating as those statistics are, the most alarming statistic to me is this one: Approximately 80% of the world’s opioid supply is consumed entirely in the United States. Can you believe that? That’s 80% of all opiates being consumed by only 5% of the total world’s population in America! That’s truly staggering and sad.
Among young people nationwide, 17% of students (almost 1 in 5) has taken prescription drugs (e.g., Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, codeine, Adderall, Ritalin or Xanax) without a doctor’s prescription one or more times during their life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, an annual report conducted each year since 1991.
Why is opioid use skyrocketing among those in our nation? There are a host of reasons, including a few valid ones, like chronic pain, but we know that’s not why the majority are consuming 80% of global opioids.
The fact is people’s hearts are stressed, anxious, discontent and hurting from life’s circumstances. And in a pleasure and comfort-based nation, with too many unable to weather tough times and difficulty without an instant stress and pain reliever or fix, they want (“need”) and take their “happiness pill.”
Dr. Peter Ubel, a physician and behavioral scientist, posits this explanation: “Even though many addicts are miserable, this misery doesn’t mean that their use of heroin or crack is irrational. As [Professors Gary] Becker and [Kevin] Murphy put it: ‘People often become addicted precisely because they are unhappy. However, they would be even more unhappy if they were prevented from consuming the addictive goods.'”
Two things young people in particular today can definitely learn from older generations: the power of perseverance (weathering pain and difficulty), and the ability to find true happiness and contentment outside of a quick and temporary fix. I encourage more older adults (including of course parents, guardians and grandparents) to invest more time in the near future to encourage these character traits in their younger family members.
If a lack of happiness is contributing to the core of addictions to opioids and even alcohol – and I believe it is, then I highly encourage people everywhere to study and master the art of being happy and content by reading the bestselling book, “Happiness,” by my friend and prolific author Randy Alcorn (it’s available right now 60% off through his website!).
“Happiness” is one ginormous resource to discover yours and others’ true happiness, and regain health and balance in our hearts, minds, souls, households, communities and nation. I also encourage people to listen to Randy’s Happiness audio and video messages and check out the resources on his Happiness blog, where his series of Happiness articles are available free of charge. Start with this great Lifeway interview with Randy about the subject of happiness.
Randy couldn’t have put it better when he addressed how we are hardwired for happiness but with one serious flaw: “I argue in the book the problem isn’t they’re trying to be happy. God wired us to seek happiness. The problem is we seek happiness in the wrong places.”
In so doing, we simultaneously (and often inadvertently) overlook or forget the true source of our core happiness: our Creator.
That is also why Randy quoted in his book from Thomas Brooks (1608-1680), an early migrant to America, captain of the militia and well-loved pastor, who explained 400 years ago an age-old truth: “Nothing can make that man truly miserable that hath God for his portion, nor nothing can make that man truly happy that [lacks] God for his portion. God is the author of all true happiness; he is the donor of all true happiness; he is the maintainer of all true happiness, and he is the centre of all true happiness. … He that hath him for his God, for his portion, is the only happy man in the world.”
The Bible describes it this way: “Do not put your hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God who richly provides us with all things to enjoy [or be happy].”
America’s founders understood that spiritual fact. That is why they stated it among our unalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence: We are “endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
(If anyone has doubts, struggles or wants to learn more about God, I encourage you download this FREE E-copy of the book, “The God Questions: Exploring Life’s Greatest Questions About God.”)
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