With election season almost over (well, the actual election day part of it, anyway), I thought it might be nice to take a moment to consider and appreciate a few positive news items.
Americans remain the most charitable people on earth – and number two isn’t even close. Charitable giving in the U.S. equals 1.44% of annual GDP, nearly double that of second-place New Zealand. In raw dollars, Americans give more than $250 billion annually to charities, compared to less than $20 billion for the next highest country, the United Kingdom.
Household wealth is at record highs, and since 2019, the bottom 50% of wage earners experienced the largest percentage increase.
This calendar year marks the first time since 2009 that the University of Tennessee is paying only one current or former head football coach. Pleasing all sorts of demographic groups, Tony Vitello remains the UT baseball coach.
After peaking at more than 9% in 2022, inflation in the U.S. has fallen to 2.4%.
A record number of Americans are currently employed. Real wages are now growing faster than inflation, a reversal of the previous three years. And income growth is finally starting to outpace rent increases.
Life expectancy for a baby born in the U.S. in 2024 has reached a new high of 79.25 years. The percentage of Americans without medical insurance has hit a record low.
McDonalds corporate will finally allow individual franchisees to hire local repair shops to fix the ice cream machines, vastly reducing the length of McFlurry outages.
Knoxville homicides this year are down 28% , compared to the same period in 2020, and sexual assaults have declined 25%. It’s been years since I recall Knox County and the Knox County School System publicly fighting over money.
The Air Quality Index in Knoxville has vastly improved over the past 20 years, with only one day in the past seven years being defined as “Unhealthy.”
Fortunately, an inspector discovered the Gay Street Bridge flaw, rather than a boater.
Every day, more people discover the advantages of streaming, making it ever-more-obvious that cable companies should have spent a little money on customer service back when legally protected local monopolies allowed them to essentially print money.
The proliferation of smart devices means fewer clocks to reset twice a year. And artificial intelligence has made it so much easier for high schoolers to write love notes.
Americans’ keen judgement of character remains intact, as politicians continue to rank as the least trustworthy profession, even behind car salesmen and telemarketers. And probably columnists.
And if you need something to look forward to, baseball season in downtown Knoxville is less than six months away.
David Moon is president of Moon Capital Management. A version of this piece originally appeared in the USA TODAY NETWORK.