Optimism May Have Its Detractors, But It's Still The American Norm

In retrospectives last week on Ronald Reagan, “optimism” was written so often that efficient journalists must have had the word on a save-get key. One might infer from this that Reagan’s optimism was out of the ordinary. Instead, a new Harris Poll makes it clear that personal optimism is more the rule than the exception in the U.S. Despite ample reason for gloom, there was even an uptick this year in optimism. People were asked, “In the course of the next five years, do you expect your personal situation to improve, to stay about the same or to get worse?” Sixty-eight percent said they expect life to improve for them; 6 percent expect it to get worse.