Only 17% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the united states, according to a gallop pole. 85% of americans are happy with their personal lives. What do you think? Angela duckworth: I just feel like there's lots to be concerned about relative to where things were ten or 20 years ago. And why is us media so negative? We've discussed on this show before that we have a negative bias built in which bad is stronger than good.