We often blame smartphones and social media for making us feel worse. But most of the world uses these digital tools at least as much as Americans do, and the US still came in 23rd on the global happiness ranking in 2026, down from 13th a decade prior. America’s happiness decline must have another major cause, says report co-editor and University of British Columbia professor emeritus of economics John Helliwell.
How about long commutes that suck up all our time. I used to commute 10 miles one way on a bicycle to work, and ride 10 miles home. 2 hour commute total, 8-9 hour work day. All that was left was preparing meals so I didn’t waste money on take out, cleaning and sleeping. Weekends spent on catching up on sleep and more chores we couldn’t do during the week. When the fuck are we supposed to spend time with friends? A single drink at a bar costs $20. A 4 pack of the cider I like costs $12-14 dollars. I can’t event afford to get proper drunk at home alone. Someone making federal minimum wage would need to work nearly 3 hours to afford a drink in a bar. Concert tickets are insanely expensive, decent seats for a single person $200 - $300. Plane tickets are insanely expensive. Parks and public spaces aren’t maintained.
In February 1990, a one-day, one-park ticket to Walt Disney World cost $31.00 for an adult. At Walt Disney World in 2026, standard 1-day, 1-park tickets range from $119 to $209 (plus tax) per person ages 10 and up. All of the entertainment that’s out there for poor people is just horribly enshitified and not fucking worth it. When 50% or more of your income is paying rent, fuck it, just gonna stay home and at least get what I pay for.
Fun is now just for the rich and they demonize the poor for trying to enjoy the small luxuries they can afford, like splurging at the grocery store to buy a porter house steak instead of eating rice and beans every fucking day. Millennials and Gen Z are supposedly splurging on groceries because other luxuries are out of reach.
This article talks about price but tap dances around the real fucking issues. Wages have not kept up with productivity and affording basic necessities like food, shelter, healthcare, and transportation are fucking out of reach for so many. Entertainment venues like bars, restaurants, clubs would exist and profit if people actually had disposable income to spend.
Bloomberg can suck ALL THE FUCKING DICKS after they take their god damned smart phones and shove them up their asses until they are choking on facebook adds.
Having friends over for dinner is an underappreciated and affordable form of fun
Having friends
Going out requires a car. Money to park a car, money for the event itself, money for drinks, money for games, money for food. THEN you can have fun. If you’re broke too bad.
The cost of the goods and services has increased faster than salaries, as elsewhere in the economy.
Yeah, there’s a place I wanted to go last night, but not only is it a two hour round trip, I have to pay for gas and mileage. So I stayed home.
We’ve really fucked ourselves as a society, building infrastructure that requires everyone to be wealthy.
America used to be wealthy, and developed a culture that expected that. Then more and more of the wealth was funneled into fewer and fewer hands. If America had maintained and grew its distributive structures, the impacts would still be a problem but the basic elements of survival wouldn’t feel so difficult to obtain.
You bet. We are like the moose covered in ticks. Ever sector of the economy has been parasitized by oligopoly.
walks are free though.
In 100F weather? No thanks.
Yeah. I posted a little while ago about trying to get my town to plant more trees because my god there are entire streets that might as well be a desert with how little shade they have. It’s unbearable to walk anywhere if it gets to be anywhere near 80+.
I’m slowly making tiny bits of progress since then, but nothing concrete. I emailed multiple gov reps/officials and got no response. However, my mom just happened to run into the chief of staff or whatever for the town’s supervisor at a concert at a park, who is apparently sympathetic and said we could talk with him sometime. He said they had a tree program and were planting what they thought were trees that wouldn’t disrupt the sidewalks but when that didn’t work out they just gave up.
I’m gonna try emailing him with some more info on options to avoid root damage and see if this can get anywhere.
There isn’t anywhere to walk (safely) in my city. We don’t even have a park. Never mind a severe lack of sidewalks. This city was founded in the 60s and the car-brain really shows in its planning :/
Sorry to hear :(
My mil lives in a town that you need a car to get everywhere. They’ve got beautiful woods tho. The hiking is gorgeous. She’s just too decrepit to take advantage of it
Assuming you live somewhere with sidewalks.
even without sidewalks walking is free
Sure, but there are places where it’s just not safe to walk.
This is something my friend group does. We’re lucky to have some good parks and walking trails nearby and we just put in some good shoes and walk around. It’s good to catch up with them and we tend to run into the occasional deer or bunny or dogs on walks
Good for you and your friend group! This is the way.
And then you actually have people being upvoted on here saying that they should be expensive because “they are a luxury”.
Americans are more miserable than ever. The enshitification of basically everything has take a strangle hold on life itself. Something has got to give.
Americans love sucking the boot. They could go for another century
I was reading somewhere that gambling has “become Americans favorite pastime”. That’s a sad state of affairs as it means people are trying to recover and make money rather than expanding themselves with art, culture and entertainment.
Can someone post the text, please? Recaptcha is tedious as fuck.
Yeah, that site is fairly toxic.
The secretive owner has been caught altering the content of the archive, and using the site to co-opt people’s browsers to launch DDOS attacks on critics and such.
archive.org was not working with this link
archive.is? that site? more information please
In my small hometown there used to be a go kart track & mini golf place that closed down a number of years ago. A bank was built in its place.
A few years later a locally popular/famous restaurant unexpectedly closed down, even the cooks & waiters were caught off guard. The owners sold the property to a different bank.We had one too. It got knocked down to be storage for a construction company, so I have look at the skeleton of it on the side of the freeway every time I pass and think about what might have been. It was awesome. Mini golf, go karts, boat racing, arcade. It was one of my favorite places to go as a child. They also had batting cages which my dad took me to often to practice for little league. The closest ones now for my son are 30 minutes away.
Trying to hang out with my 5 siblings, to spend as little money as possible. Walk around the mall 30 minutes away, or the one 45 minutes away. Done that too many times. So we spend 60$ at a splash pad instead.
Millennials opening another bar+X combo: why don’t people come here?
