21 Signs That Americans Are The Unhappiest People In The Entire World <http://endoftheamericandream.com> ------------------------------
21 Signs That Americans Are The Unhappiest People In The Entire World <http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/21-signs-that-americans-are-the-unhappiest-people-in-the-entire-world> Posted: 10 Nov 2015 03:32 PM PST [image: Sad - Public Domain] <http://amzn.to/1PB5481>How can we possibly be so miserably unhappy? For a nation that supposedly “has it all”, we sure are depressed. In America today, suicide rates are soaring, antidepressant use is skyrocketing and virtually every new survey that comes out shows that we are deeply dissatisfied about something. But we live at a time when there are more things to enjoy than ever before. When I was growing up there was only a handful of television channels to choose from, but now there are hundreds. We have more movies than we could ever possibly watch, more books than we could ever possibly read, and the greatest video games ever made are at our fingertips. With all of the entertainment that surrounds us, you would think that Americans would be happier than ever before, and yet we continue to become even more depressed. Everywhere I go, I see people that look like they have had the life completely sucked out of them. So why is this happening? The following are 21 signs that Americans are the unhappiest people in the entire world… *#1* A scientific study that was just released found that U.S. adults are becoming less happy over the years <http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americans-over-30-are-more-miserable-than-theyve-ever-been-2015-11-09> … “Adults over 30 are less happy than their predecessors,” concludes a study published online Thursday in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, which examined happiness data from more than 50,000 adults, gleaned from the General Social Survey, carried out by NORC at the University of Chicago, a nonpartisan, independent research organization, which has collected information about American adults since 1972. >From 2010 to 2014, adults over 30 had an average happiness score of just 2.18, compared with 2.24 a decade ago. That’s significant considering happiness scores were measured on a tiny scale from just 1 to 3, with 1 being “not too happy” and 3 being “very happy.” *#2* Young people are also becoming increasingly depressed. Just check out what one study conducted at San Diego State University discovered <http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/10/02/3575170/depression-rising-americans/> … Americans are more depressed now than they have been in decades, a recent study <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140930132832.htm> has found. San Diego State University (SDSU) psychology professor Jean M. Twenge analyzed data from nearly 7 million adolescents and adults from across the country and found that more people reported symptoms of depression — including sleeplessness and trouble concentrating — compared to the 1980s. Twenge’s findings show that teenagers in the 2010s experience memory trouble 38 percent more often than their 1980s counterparts. Teens are also 74 percent more likely to have trouble sleeping and twice as likely to see a professional for mental health issues. College students in the study reported feeling overwhelmed by academic and personal demands 50 percent more often than their 1980s counterparts. *#3* Back in 1987, 61.1 percent <http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/06/20/most-americans-are-unhappy-at-work/> of all Americans reported being *happy* at work. Today, 52.3 percent <http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/06/20/most-americans-are-unhappy-at-work/> of all Americans say that they are *unhappy* at work. *#4* A different survey found that 70 percent <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-most-americans-unhappy-at-work/> of all Americans do not “feel engaged or inspired at their jobs”. *#5* One survey of 50-year-old men in the U.S. found that only 12 percent <http://www.esquire.com/features/facts-about-men-1010> of them said that they were “very happy”. *#6* The number of Americans diagnosed with depression increases by about 20 percent <http://www.naturalnews.com/043150_depression_heavy_metal_poisoning_brain_function.html> each year. *#7* According to the New York Times, more than 30 million Americans <http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/a-glut-of-antidepressants/> take antidepressants. *#8* Doctors in the United States write more than 250 million prescriptions <http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/70-million-americans-taking-mind-altering-drugs/> for antidepressants each year. *#9 *The rate of antidepressant use among middle aged women is far higher than for the population as a whole. It is hard to believe, but right now one out of every four women in their 40s and 50s <http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/a-glut-of-antidepressants/> is taking an antidepressant medication. *#10 *Compared to children in Europe, children in the United States are three times more likely <http://www.businessinsider.com/depressing-facts-about-healthcare-system-2011-6#american-kids-are-three-times-as-likely-to-be-prescribed-antidepressants-than-kids-in-europe-9> to be prescribed antidepressants. *#11* In America today, there are 60 million people <http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/19-statistics-about-the-drugging-of-america-that-are-almost-too-crazy-to-believe> that abuse alcohol and there are 22 million people that use illegal drugs. *#12* America has the highest rate of illegal drug use <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/01/health/webmd/main4222322.shtml> on the entire planet. *#13* One recent poll found that 71 percent <http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2015/08/31/Poll-Americans-are-dissatisfied-with-their-country/2091441025280/> of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction that things are going in this country. *#14* America has the highest divorce rate <http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_div_rat-people-divorce-rate> in the world by a wide margin. *#15* America has the highest percentage of one person households <http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_one_per_hou-people-one-person-households> on the entire planet. *#16* 100 years ago, 4.52 people were living in the average U.S. household, but now the average U.S. household only consists of 2.59 people <http://www.moneychoice.org/then-vs-now/>. *#17* According to the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent <http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/married-couples-at-a-record-low/2011/12/13/gIQAnJyYsO_story.html> of all American adults are married. Back in 1960, 72 percent <http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/married-couples-at-a-record-low/2011/12/13/gIQAnJyYsO_story.html> of all adults in the United States were married. *#18* The suicide rate in the United States is now the highest that it has been in 25 years <http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2014/10/08/us-suicides-hit-highest-rate-in-25-years> . *#19* According to one absolutely shocking study <http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/02/01/study-22-military-veterans-commit-suicide-every-day/>, 22 military veterans kill themselves in the United States every single day. *#20* The suicide rate for Americans between the ages of 35 and 64 rose by close to 30 percent <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/health/suicide-rate-rises-sharply-in-us.html?_r=1&;> between 1999 and 2010. The number of Americans that are killed by suicide now exceeds the number of Americans that die as a result of automobile accidents every year*.* *#21* The rate of suicide is highest during the holidays that come at the end of the year, and 45 percent <http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-most-depressing-time-of-the-year-in-the-most-depressed-nation-on-the-planet> of all Americans say that they dread the Christmas season. The following comes from a Psychology Today article <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/200912/why-people-get-depressed-christmas> … We are told that Christmas, for Christians, should be the happiest time of year, an opportunity to be joyful and grateful with family, friends and colleagues. Yet, according to the National Institute of Health, Christmas is the time of year that people experience the highest incidence of depression. Hospitals and police forces report the highest incidences of suicide and attempted suicide. Psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals report a significant increase in patients complaining about depression. One North American survey reported that 45% of respondents dreaded the festive season. So why in the world is this happening? We have one of the highest standards of living in the world and we are surrounded by massive amounts of entertainment. Yet we are severely depressed. And during the “happiest time of the year” we get even more depressed. Clearly something has gone very wrong. Even more entertainment is not going to fix us, and neither will more drugging <http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/drugged-into-oblivion-nearly-60-percent-of-all-u-s-adults-are-on-prescription-drugs> . So what will finally make us happy? Please feel free to tell us what you think by posting a comment below… <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/endoftheamericandream/OFri?a=aeHG-njtM0E:-wC7Y-idgl8:yIl2AUoC8zA> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/endoftheamericandream/OFri?a=aeHG-njtM0E:-wC7Y-idgl8:gIN9vFwOqvQ> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/endoftheamericandream/OFri?a=aeHG-njtM0E:-wC7Y-idgl8:qj6IDK7rITs> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/endoftheamericandream/OFri?a=aeHG-njtM0E:-wC7Y-idgl8:V_sGLiPBpWU> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/endoftheamericandream/OFri?a=aeHG-njtM0E:-wC7Y-idgl8:l6gmwiTKsz0> Pocketbook Pain: The Rapidly Rising Cost Of Living Is Absolutely Killing The Middle Class In America <http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/pocketbook-pain-the-rapidly-rising-cost-of-living-is-absolutely-killing-the-middle-class-in-america> Posted: 09 Nov 2015 04:08 PM PST [image: Pain In The Wallet] <http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/pocketbook-pain-the-rapidly-rising-cost-of-living-is-absolutely-killing-the-middle-class-in-america/pain-in-the-wallet>All over America, the middle class is dying and poverty is on the rise <http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/21-facts-about-the-explosive-growth-of-poverty-in-america-that-will-blow-your-mind>. One of the primary reasons for this is the rapidly rising cost of living in the United States. The cost of just about everything that average families shell out money for on a regular basis – food, rent, health insurance, etc. – is rising much faster than wages are. In a previous article I noted that the federal poverty level for a family of five is $28,410 <https://www.google.com/#q=federal+poverty+level+2015>, but 51 percent of all American workers are making less than $30,000 a year <http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/goodbye-middle-class-51-percent-of-all-american-workers-make-less-than-30000-dollars-a-year> at this point. We have seen an explosion in the number of people in this country that are considered to be “the working poor” and it gets worse with each passing year. One of the most frustrating things for me personally is the rising cost of health insurance. Barack Obama promised that his program would result in a decline in health insurance premiums by as much as $2,500 per family, but in reality average family premiums have increased by a total of $4,865 <http://news.investors.com/blogs-capital-hill/092315-772384-premiums-have-steadily-climbed-despite-obama-promise-to-cut-them.htm> since 2008. Just recently, I got a letter informing me that my health insurance premiums would be going up by close to 20 percent in 2016. That is on top of an increase of more than 30 percent in 2015. Sadly, the exact same thing is happening to millions of other families all over the nation. The following comes from TruNews <https://www.trunews.com/obamacare-premiums-will-jump-3-times-higher-next-year/> … The Obamacare increases for 2016 have been released. Premiums will increase 3 times faster than officials claim. Every state is different. Every insurer is different. New Mexico residents, for instance, can expect increases of 8 to 40 percent for the second-lowest cost silver plan. But for people in other states, including Arkansas the cost will increase less than 4 percent. Overall the average increase is 20.3 percent, according to analysis by The Daily Caller News Foundation, instead of the 7.5 percent originally asserted. And of course it isn’t just health insurance. Every time I go to the grocery store I am stunned by the prices. They often try to hide the price increases so that we will not notice them. Sometimes when I go food shopping I notice that some of my favorite things are “on sale”, but the sale prices are what the old “regular prices” used to be. And food companies just keep shrinking package sizes, but the amount we have to pay stays the same or goes up. Unfortunately, our food dollars are never going to stretch any farther than they do right now. Thanks to erratic global weather, food prices are quickly moving higher. In fact, according to the Crux <http://thecrux.com/food-costs-soar-most-in-3-years/> global food prices just rose by the most that we have seen in three years… The effects of El Niño are starting to reach the dinner table, with global food prices rising the most in three years on supply concerns for everything from New Zealand milk to sugar in Brazil and Southeast Asian palm oil. An index of 73 food prices increased 3.9%, the biggest jump since July 2012, to 162 in October, the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization wrote in a report Thursday. The return of the El Niño weather phenomenon is changing weather conditions around the world, damaging crops with too much rain in some areas and not enough in others. The price of sugar increased more than that of any other commodity in the FAO report, soaring 17 percent, the most since September 2010. Excessive downpours in Brazil, the world’s largest producer, have slowed harvesting and reduced the amount of sweetener that can be extracted from cane. As a result of this relentless squeeze on our pocketbooks, tens of millions of families are struggling to pay the bills from month to month, and the middle class is continually getting smaller. As the middle class shrinks, poverty is growing and more Americans are becoming dependent on the government than ever before. The following numbers come out of one of my previous articles entitled “21 Facts About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Will Blow Your Mind <http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/21-facts-about-the-explosive-growth-of-poverty-in-america-that-will-blow-your-mind> “… *#1* The U.S. Census Bureau says that nearly 47 million Americans <http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/americas-poverty-problem/405700/> are living in poverty right now. *#2* Other numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau are also very disturbing. For example, in 2007 about one out of every eight children in America was on food stamps. Today, that number is one out of every five <http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-16.html>. *#3* According to Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, the authors of a new book entitled “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America <http://amzn.to/1MtYB9y>“, there are 1.5 million “ultrapoor” households in the United States that live on less than two dollars a day. That number has doubled since 1996. *#4* 46 million Americans <http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/46-million-americans-go-to-food-banks-and-long-lines-for-dwindling-food-supplies-begin-at-630-am> use food banks each year, and lines start forming at some U.S. food banks as early as 6:30 in the morning because people want to get something before the food supplies run out. *#5* The number of homeless children in the U.S. has increased by 60 percent <http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/mediadocs/280.pdf> over the past six years. *#6* According to Poverty USA <http://www.povertyusa.org/>, 1.6 million American children slept in a homeless shelter or some other form of emergency housing last year. It has become exceedingly clear that “the American Dream” is dying and that the future is not very bright for “ordinary hard-working Americans”. I like how Rupert Cornwell described this in one of his recent articles <http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/america-s-white-working-class-is-dying-and-that-has-disturbing-implications-a6725606.html> … The politicians still prattle on about “helping hard-working Americans” and “restoring the American dream”. But even as instinctively optimistic a breed as the Americans now believe they are being sold a bill of goods. What dream? The reality is that no longer is it a hard-working blue-collar American’s birthright to live better than his parents. Most probably, he or she will be worse off. You might be one of those Americans that has fallen out of the middle class and into poverty. Even in the midst of this so-called “economic recovery”, large numbers of formerly middle class Americans are losing their jobs and losing their homes. And a surprising number of them end up either living in their vehicles or living in the streets. The following comes from a recent article by Joshua Krause <http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/surviving-poverty-in-a-van-unlike-the-streets-you-can-maintain-a-decent-standard-of-living_11072015> … On any given night in America, there are over a half a million people <http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/snapshot_of_homelessness> living on the streets or in their vehicles. As you can imagine, that’s not a good place to be in your life, but it happens. If you think that this is something that might happen to you one day in the near future (and who are kidding, it could happen to anyone these days) here’s a word of advice: *Don’t wait until the last-minute, hoping for that next job interview to come through as you burn through your savings.* If homelessness is a real possibility in your life, it’s something that you should be preparing for, not waiting for. The more money you have at your disposal when you decide to leave your home, the easier your life is going to be without a house. If you have no money, you’ll be living on the streets with little more than the clothes on your back. It’s better to put your savings towards a van or a truck that you can live in. Unlike living on the streets, you can actually maintain a fairly decent standard of living with very little money. When I was growing up, it seemed like just about everyone in my entire high school was part of the middle class. But things have changed dramatically in America since that time. Today, the middle class is being absolutely eviscerated <http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/goodbye-middle-class-51-percent-of-all-american-workers-make-less-than-30000-dollars-a-year> and our “leaders” don’t seem to care. So is there a way out of this mess? 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