Talk to almost any American today and you’ll hear the same story: things are falling apart. The country isn’t what it used to be, the world has grown harsher. The good days are behind us.

They’ll be right to point out the tragedies happening all around - the war in Ukraine, soaring healthcare costs, homelessness in the streets. Yet, this historical moment is far from uniquely terrible. Point to any decade in the last 100 years and you’ll find an America which was arguably much worse. 

1930’s - Great Depression. Household wealth wiped out, unemployment rises to 25%.
1940’s - World War II. Pearl Harbor attacked, 10 million Americans conscripted, 400,000 dead.
1950’s - Korean War. 1.5 million Americans conscripted. KKK re-emerges.
1960’s - Vietnam War. 2 million conscripted. Cuban Missile Crisis.
1970’s - Energy Crisis. Severe gas shortages and stagflation. 
1980’s - Chernobyl Disaster, HIV/AIDS epidemic.
1990’s - Oklahoma City Bombing, Columbine shooting. The rise of domestic terrorism. 
2000’s - 9/11, followed by the 2008 financial crisis.
2010’s - Opioid epidemic, Sandy Hook shooting, rise of ISIS.
2020’s - COVID-19 pandemic shuts down daily life. 

And in this seemingly tragic century, America rose to become the most wealthy and powerful nation in the world. Life expectancy increased by 20 years, real GDP per capita increased by 10x while infant mortality decreased by 10x. High school graduation rates increased from ~25% to ~90% while the average work week shifted from 60 hours of manual labor to 40 hours of knowledge work. The average American today lives a life more prosperous than our peers 50 years ago could fathom.

Turmoil is a constant of the human condition, but progress is too. We build, we invent, and we invariably create better lives for our descendants. At nearly every moment in American history, the “golden age” is the present.