The Antisocial Economy

The rising costs and falling opportunities for social life, contrary to the opinion of pundits left, right, and center, really are making us miserable.

Everyone seems pretty miserable, and journalists, economists, and scholars want to know why. The trouble is they can’t seem to blame the most obvious culprit: the economy.

Derek Thompson, the leading liberal chronicler of our emerging “Anti-Social Century,” dismisses an economic explanation for our social malaise: “Americans are rich and getting richer, by most conventional measures.” Lyman Stone, a popular conservative demographer, similarly blows off the economic explanations: “young men in 2024 saw their highest inflation-adjusted earnings since the 1970s!! It hasn’t been this good to be a young man in a long time!” Meanwhile, economist Paul Krugman put down the axe he is perpetually grinding against President Trump to wonder: “Why are Americans so down on an economy that, while not the greatest, isn’t terrible by the usual measures?” And veteran conservative firebrand David French sums up the concern troubling commentators on both sides of the aisle: How Can America Be So Miserable When It’s So Rich?

These accounts are part of a broader panglossian genre of writing that has sprouted up like spring weeds. The economic fundamentals are sound, pundits right, left, and center assure us. The bad feelings are all just vibes.

To most people, stories like these read like dispatches from outer space. The truth is that the economy really is broken and really is making us miserable.