Most Americans don’t realize how miserable their lives are: Nobel economist

The Wall Street Journal's Joseph C. Sternberg, in a recent op-ed, posed the question: "What happens when Europeans find out how poor they are?" Sternberg argued that the "widening gap between American and European prosperity" was showing itself with "gross domestic product."

But liberal economist Paul Krugman disagrees with the premise of Sternberg's op-ed in a Substack column, stressing that "European incomes relative to American incomes have not declined, because GDP growth as conventionally measured doesn't mean what many people think it means." And he poses a question of his own: "What happens when Americans realize how miserable we are?"

Krugman acknowledges that Americans are not miserable "in all respects."

"But my guess is that relatively few Americans realize how much we are falling behind other nations on basic aspects of a civilized life, like health and safety," the former New York Times columnist explains. "Take the issue of life expectancy, which surely matters as much as GDP. After all, one important contributor to the quality of life is not being dead. Judging from reader reactions to earlier posts, many generally well-informed Americans are still startled to learn how badly U.S. life expectancy has lagged behind other advanced nations. ... This life expectancy gap will surely grow in the years ahead, thanks to the Trump Administration's attacks on both health coverage and modern medicine, including but not limited to the widening assault on vaccines. ... Or consider infant mortality, where the United States not only does much worse than other rich nations but now does worse than some much poorer countries."

Krugman points out that "murder rates are still far higher in the U.S. than in Europe" — for example, 5.8 homicides per 100 people compared to only 1.3 in France, 1.1 in the UK, and 0.6 in Italy.

"Mortality is a useful point of comparison because it's easily quantifiable," Krugman notes. "So, to a lesser extent, is work-life balance. ... The average U.S. private-sector worker receives only 10 days of paid vacation and 6 paid holidays annually. And the U.S. is, of course, the only advanced nation that doesn't guarantee healthcare to all its citizens. Other problems with the U.S. way of life — like our lack of walkable cities, access to public transportation, and feasibility of living without a car — are harder to summarize with simple numbers. But they are real failings. ... And many Americans would, I believe, be angry if they realized how much worse our lives are in many ways than those of our counterparts abroad."