A primary indicator of happiness among Americans is homeownership, something young people ca n’t easily access, said economic analyst and writer Mike Shedlock.
The United States has dropped out of the best 20 in an annual international pleasure ranking surveys, perhaps as a result of the younger generation’s bleak outlook for the future.
The information is not surprising, according to financial analyst and author Mike Shedlock, who claimed that President Joe Biden’s economic policies have resulted in” two economy but only one interest rate,” which has struggled black Americans and those under the age of 30.
Happiest Countries in the World
The Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom publishes The World Happiness Report in collaboration with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the Gallup analysis company. The Cantril staircase, which subjects are asked to envision their pleasure size as a rope with the best career at 10 and the worst life at zero, is used to evaluate happiness levels on a global scale.
Researchers review a participant’s life analysis using the Cantril rope within six variables: gross domestic product per capita, social support, wholesome life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.
The World Happiness Report states that “our happiness rankings are not based on any index of these six factors; rather, they are based on people’s own assessments of their lives, in particular, their responses to the single-item Cantril ladder life-evaluation question, much like epidemiologists estimate the extent to which life expectancy is influenced by factors like smoking, exercise, and diet.”
According to Mr. Shedlock, America has fallen to No. 62 in the happiness ranking for people aged 30 and younger, which he called” a disaster”.
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” What does this mean economically? This means if they’re that unhappy, they’re not going to have kids”, he said. ” And what are they unhappy about? I’m quite certain that they are unhappy that their home prices are so sky high. Salaries have not increased. They never consider themselves to be able to afford a home.
In addition, many are struggling to pay off student debt for degrees in study programs that are n’t getting them jobs, he said.
” The share of 18- to 25- year- olds hardly have any confidence in Congress, the executive branch, or the press”, he said.
Democrats Are n’t Buying It
Still, some Democrats and supporters of the Biden administration defend the economy as doing well, citing a soaring stock market, a successful recovery from the COVID pandemic, and a drop in inflation.
” Now, of course, there are problems”, he said. ” America is a big place. But wages are rising, unemployment is negligible, the stock market is soaring, we somehow brushed off both a Trump presidency and a pandemic”.
He admitted that inflation indeed persisted” for a lot of things”, but celebrated the lowered cost of televisions, convenient Amazon shipping,” stuffed- crust pizza”, and legal marijuana.
Mr. Shedlock said the economy is only doing great” for a certain set of people”, namely, those who own assets. Sixty- four percent of Americans own a house, he said, while 36 percent are renters.
” It’s those 36 percent who are unhappy”, he said. ” And who’s that 36 percent? It’s black people and those under 35 and younger”.
In the period from 2011 to 2021, overall homeownership rates increased to 65.5 percent from 64.7 percent, with 9.2 million more homeowners in 2021 than in the previous decade.
However, according to the report, the black homeownership rate—which was 44 percent in 2023—increased less than half of 1 percentage point from 43.6 percent in 2011. This is nearly 29 percentage points below the 72.7 percent white homeownership rate.
According to the Realtors report,” Black homeowners and renters are more financially burdened than any other racial group,” adding that less than 10 % of black renters can afford homes.
Less Happy Than the Old
Finland, ranked No. 10 among the world’s ten happiest nations, according to the World Happiness Report. 1, with Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Israel trailing behind in the top five.
The United States is at the top. 23 on the list, above Germany and below the United Arab Emirates.
” By contrast, in the transition countries of central and Eastern Europe, the young are much happier than the old”, he wrote.
According to Mr. Shedlock, The Epoch Times reported that the Federal Reserve is at fault for the problem and that the government is being pressured to” cut interest rates this year based on inflation rates coming down.”
What will that accomplish? He said that it will increase the stock market and, likely, the price of housing, making it more difficult for the people who are the most unhappy to access them. ” That’s reflected in the polls, and it’s going to weigh on the election”.
Additionally, it’s why Mr. Shedlock thinks former US president Donald Trump will win in November.
” It’s not because these young voters are happy about voting for Trump”, he said. Generation Z will be the first generation in U.S. history to be in a worse state than their parents, according to them, adding,” They’re just very unhappy about the economic conditions here. Most economists do n’t see it because all they are looking at is the booming stock market, but they do, and they see it.
They see inflation sagging a little, but I’m skeptical, he said, adding that it will continue to grow at a faster rate than the Fed and most economists anticipate.
Asset owners versus everyone else
According to Mr. Shedlock, mortgage rates dropped below 3 percent between April 2020 and January 2022 when the Fed cut interest rates to zero.
” So, everyone who owns a house was able to refinance that mortgage from 4 to 5 percent, or even three- and- a- half percent, all the way down to 3 percent”, he said. ” Rent, however, has gone up at least four- tenths of a percent for 30 consecutive months. But homeowners do n’t pay rent, they pay a mortgage, so when they refinanced their 4 percent mortgage down to a 3 percent mortgage, that puts extra money in their pockets every month going forward. All those refinanced people are now making more money than they did in the past.
Renters may be paid more, but it wo n’t cover the rising rent and food costs.
” Now, inflation is coming down enough to where their pay increase is finally beating the rate of inflation”, he said. ” But for about two years they lost money to inflation. But, a lot of those people wanted to buy a house. They were priced out of it then, they’re even more priced out of it now. That’s what they’re angry about”.
The Federal Reserve and the “free money stimulus under the Biden administration,” according to Mr. Shedlock,” set off a massive wave of inflation from which the economy still has n’t recovered.”
The main beneficiaries have been the asset owners, and the main losers have been anyone else, primarily black voters and young voters, “is coming down now,” said Mr. Shedlock. ” That’s what they’re angry about, and they’re going to take it out on the polls and it will cost Biden the election”.
He claimed that President Biden’s regulations and green energy mandates have also contributed to this problem, noting that they have “increased prices across the board.”
Birth rates will decline because these younger generations ca n’t afford a home, he said, hurting the family unit’s future, which will play a role in demographics” for years to come.”
“Economists still have not figured this out”, he said. The Fed has not yet discovered this. What will it take to make a fix? Unfortunately, for the Fed to fix inflation, it will take a hard recession, and a recession will be harder on these age groups”.
