Thats just how life is -- we always want things to be better, and being in the technology sector you know well that things can almost always be accomplished in a better, more enjoyable and efficient way. I know you didn't write this but I find your blog interesting and want to throw in my $.02 -- seems to me that if people want to be happy they don't need to compare themselves against any other time period, or country, or even to their neighbors. We can look over to countries that have even more freedoms than the US does (Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, et al) and they probably have just as much to complain about - and in reality have a standard of living almost identical as that of the US. In many ways I guess this guy is saying ignorance is bliss. The New York Times and Newsweek report the facts as they stand and a lot of people are disturbed when this doesn't match up with their vision of how they want things to be going. Fox has the remedy for some, constantly reporting on child abducting, and celebrities , saving the real issues only for partisan arguments. So basically what I'm saying is theres some stuff you can't change - accept it and ignore the fact that some are better off -- but if there is something changeable in your life (ie the leadership of a democracy, something that was designed to be questioned and not shrouded in a papal belief of infallibility) do your best to fix what irks you.