We live in the most materially prosperous era in human history. Over the past half-century, child mortality has fallen by two-thirds in the United States, medical advances have made lives longer and more comfortable, education rates have soared, and material comforts like air-conditioning, plumbing and internet access abound. Although our country faces many challenges, the progress of the past decades has ushered in conveniences and opportunities that previous generations could scarcely imagine.
Yet we are anxious, restless and often enraged. Why?
It’s not only about our circumstances. It is about how we perceive our lives. Although technology has elevated our standard of living, it has created a warped lens of comparison. Americans’ many anxieties — about the state of our democracy, among other pressing worries — are increasingly born out of envy. Rarely has envy been so easily provoked, profitably spread or deeply embedded in daily life. This collective envy runs the risk of cutting the threads that hold our democratic system and civil society together.
In his “Divine Comedy,” Dante Alighieri described envy not just as a personal sin but also as a societal toxin. In “Purgatorio” the envious are punished by having their eyes sewn shut — blinded to their own blessings, tormented by the success of others, which they can still hear about. That poem was written more than seven centuries ago. Today our punishment is the inverse: Our eyes are forced open, flooded with curated illusions of friends and strangers alike on social media. We scroll through images of other people’s vacations, seemingly perfect families, luxury homes and effortless success, and we start to feel that we’re falling behind, even if we are objectively thriving. There is a strong argument that social media can provide access to important information and a sense of community. However, the consequences of this technology and the slow drip of dopamine it administers present massive dangers to the well-being of our society.
Social media didn’t invent envy, but it industrialized it. It turned comparison into a business model. The average teenager spends almost five hours per day on platforms whose algorithms are finely tuned to monetize discontent. We have handed over the emotional development of an entire generation to corporations with an incentive to keep them scrolling and feeling less and less content.
Into this fragile emotional landscape stepped Donald Trump. His genius was not policy but narrative. He told millions of Americans what they already felt: You are losing. Someone else is winning. And it is not your fault. Others are to blame. He named villains — immigrants, China, coastal elites. He successfully rebranded envy as righteous anger. His political project was never about making America great again. It was about explaining why other people seemed to be doing better.
Ironically, essentially no one is taking advantage of America. The United States built the postwar order and wrote the rules of the global game. Our government designed the trade agreements and a financial system that benefited Americans. That’s why the U.S. gross domestic product is almost 60 percent larger than that of its nearest rival, China. American companies have historically dominated in science, technology, aerospace and defense. They lead the way in banking and capital markets, media and entertainment, biotech and pharmaceuticals, professional services and higher education.
But politics is emotional. It thrives not on facts but on feelings. When you live in a world where everyone’s life — viewed through the screens in front of you — looks better than yours, feelings of resentment abound. And they are easy to manipulate.
There is a real problem that fuels much of this envy, of course. America’s widening wealth gap is a major threat to our prosperity. That wealth gap, though, is not the result of foreign exploitation, government inefficiency or generous entitlement programs. First and foremost, it is a consequence of asset inflation. Over the past two decades, those who held real estate and stocks watched their net worth explode. Those who didn’t didn’t. Trump-era policies — tax cuts, deregulation, capital gains preferences — further widened this chasm under the false promise of economic populism. As those tax cuts are extended and expanded, the wealth gap — and the envy it inspires — will grow.
Americans are angry not because America is failing but because our current system does not feel fair. We are measuring our lives against an algorithmically amplified social media elite. Today we are less grateful for what we have and more bitter about what we think we lack. Out of this bitterness we are exposed constantly to hostile and tribal political discourse in which any notion of the common good has been lost. Compromise is now framed as a failure. We are left feeling as if the fabric that once bound us together is being irreconcilably pulled apart.
As in Dante’s vision of purgatory, our only path out begins with humility and an appreciation for the good fortune we do have. We must teach our children — and remind ourselves — that life’s meaning is not found in someone else’s social media posts. There will always be someone smarter, richer, more athletic or more attractive. Life is short and uncertain. Happiness and satisfaction are the most precious commodities. We cannot turn over the stewardship of our emotional well-being to companies that seek to make each of us feel inadequate in order to sell more advertising and boost profit margins.
We don’t need to make America great again. Instead, we must remember to be grateful for the many gifts bestowed on each of us who are fortunate enough to be the citizens of this great country.
Russell C. Ball III is the chief executive of Wind River Holdings, a private investment company.
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