Shouldn’t America Be Happier?

That brings us to generosity.

According to the 2019 World Giving Index (PDF), Americans had been the most generous people on Earth for the prior decade, reports Marketwatch.

However, the 2021 World Giving Index (PDF) says the USA “has seen a significant decline across all three scores since 2016 — a trend which accelerated in 2020.”

Why are Americans giving less? When the downtrend began in 2016, The Atlantic tried to identify the underlying causes.

Cynicism could be one of them.

“Fewer Americans feel that their volunteer work and donations actually make a difference in their communities,” reports The Atlantic.

Since helping others brings you a lot of joy, is our reduction in giving another source of our unhappiness?

Then there is our perception of corruption.

If you live in a country where government corruption is high, you likely feel powerless in your ability to influence your government’s policies with your voice and your vote.

When President Trump won in 2016, half the country thought he stole the election. Today, the other half of the country thinks President Biden stole the 2020 election.

With perception of government corruption running high, I suppose it could contribute to the unhappiness of many Americans.

The last measure of happiness in the World Population Review involves the freedom of citizens to make their own life choices — a basic freedom that has been significantly limited by some state governments during the COVID pandemic.

States like Florida and South Dakota generally kept their economies and schools open and preserved their citizens’ freedom to make their own decisions, but states like California enforced strict lockdowns and mask mandates — making many people very unhappy.

Now that I think about it, given what we’ve gone through the last year and a half, maybe we should be happy we didn’t rank considerably lower than 19th on the 2021 World Happiness Report.

Tom Purcell is an author and humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.