With 29% of young Americans having lost faith in 'The American Dream' (for good reason as we detailed here), it is hardly surprising that a new poll by The Associated Press finds that just 10% of people believe 2015 was a better year for the world than 2014. That is half the number from 2013 and appears to confirm what we already tongue-in-cheek noted - that 2015 was perhaps the worst year ever.
As we noted previously, if the American Dream depends on skyrocketing debt built on a weakening foundation of stagnant productivity and income, then it is indeed over.
So, as CBS asks, was 2015 worse for the world than last year?
Americans are also much less likely than they were a year ago to believe that the current year was better for the United States - only 17 percent compared with 30 percent in 2014. Worse still, just 10% saw 2015 as better for the world than 2014... down from a hubristic 20% in 2013.
The new Associated Press-Times Square Alliance poll mass shootings and terror attacks weighed heavily on the minds of Americans in 2015, revealing that most polled believe this year was worse than 2014. But, for the world, while its leaders potter around proclaiming the solution to climate change, it appears that is near the bottom of people's fears...
According to the poll, the most important events to Americans in the past year were the shootings in San Bernardino, California, as well as shootings in South Carolina, Oregon and Tennessee. Close behind came the Paris attacks and atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State extremist group.
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As we commented earlier, we apologize, but 2015 had so many negatives that we’re having trouble seeing the positives. It’s like we’re on the Titanic, and it’s tilting at an 85-degree angle with its propellers way up in the air, and we’re dangling over the cold Atlantic trying to tell ourselves: “At least there’s no waiting for the shuffleboard courts!”
Are we saying that 2015 was the worst year ever? Are we saying it was worse than, for example, 1347, the year when the Bubonic Plague killed a large part of humanity?
Yes, we are saying that. Because at least the remainder of humanity was not exposed to a solid week in which the news media focused intensively on the question of whether a leading candidate for president of the United States had, or had not, made an explicit reference to a prominent female TV journalist’s biological lady cycle.
That actually happened in 2015, and it was not the only bad thing.