The optimism gap

Millions of people, in all parts of the United States and in all sorts of circumstances, are upbeat about their own lives and futures - yet have exactly the opposite feeling about the country as a whole. As a result, they tend to exaggerate national problems and distrust the country's ability to solve them, while they understate problems in their own backyard and cannot be inspired to address them. This breeds complacency and civic paralysis; it also explains why so many seemingly popular initiatives, such as trimming the budget, reforming health care, and fixing schools, are so difficult to…