The author seems to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Maybe they moved there exactly because they didn't approve "reasonable expectations" thus called them "grim" an

The author seems to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Maybe they moved there exactly because they didn't approve "reasonable expectations" thus called them "grim" and wrote an article about it? Because the article doesn't seem to criticize the status, but the expectations themselves, as in "you should have huge expectations in order to be happy". And this is maybe the entire difference we see also in other comments here: the nordic way of being content with less, or the american way of everything is possible. Thing is, we don't live in the world of hopes, so when you look around and see that actually not everything is possible, of course your happiness index takes a hit. While if you look around and see that you can have everything you put on your reasonable list, hey, you can take a break from whatever you're doing and just enjoy it.