251 Perceptions and the media

“Since the president's tax cut was fully implemented last May the unemployment rate has dropped rapidly from 6.3 percent to 5.6 percent today. Everyone knows this. It's one of the fastest declines in unemployment in decades. The problem is, this is a presidential-election year. Hence, improving economic statistics will not be accepted by the mainstream media no matter what those statistics say.” National Review Online

I noticed a snapshot statistic in USAToday that graphed “satisfaction,” and was quite surprised to see that 34% of Americans are fairly satisfied, and 57% are very satisfied, meaning 91% are fairly or very satisfied. But this isn’t what we hear, read or gossip about because who would turn on the news or buy a magazine that shouted, “Americans are satisfied and happy, but believe everyone else is in trouble.” I suppose one of the components of feeling good is believing someone else is worse off. But just like the mythical Jones family, “someone else” isn’t out there either.