One theory: "It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Pandemic." > America is in a funk, and no one seems to know why. Unemployment rates are lower than they’ve been in

One theory: "It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Pandemic." > America is in a funk, and no one seems to know why. Unemployment rates are lower than they’ve been in half a century and the stock market is sky-high, but poll after poll shows that voters are disgruntled. President Joe Biden’s approval rating has been hovering in the high 30s. Americans’ satisfaction with their personal lives—a measure that usually dips in times of economic uncertainty—is at a near-record low, according to Gallup polling. And nearly half of Americans surveyed in January said they were worse off than three years prior. > Experts have struggled to find a convincing explanation for this era of bad feelings. Maybe it’s the spate of inflation over the past couple of years, the immigration crisis at the border, or the brutal wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But even the people who claim to make sense of the political world acknowledge that these rational factors can’t fully account for America’s national malaise. We believe that’s because they’re overlooking a crucial factor. > Four years ago, the country was brought to its knees by a world-historic disaster. COVID-19 hospitalized nearly 7 million Americans and killed more than a million; it’s still killing hundreds each week. It shut down schools and forced people into social isolation. Almost overnight, most of the country was thrown into a state of high anxiety—then, soon enough, grief and mourning. But the country has not come together to sufficiently acknowledge the tragedy it endured. As clinical psychiatrists, we see the effects of such emotional turmoil every day, and we know that when it’s not properly processed, it can result in a general sense of unhappiness and anger—exactly the negative emotional state that might lead a nation to misperceive its fortunes. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/03/covid-grief-trauma-memory-biden-trump/677828/?gift=HLOKkW3uo7UNe883ugE5GJOCGxVbfKu654lfc5ZaDYI&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/03/covid-gri...