Few people will say that the United States is filled with happy people dealing with all of the positives that our nation has to offer. Too many people have strong negative attitudes against all of the forms of our government, taxes, religion, rouge police, race relations, high crime rates, illegal immigration, their neighbors and scores of other issues. The reason they have have negative attitudes is that, well, the issues exist.

     When was the last era when we as a nation could cite more things that made us happy than angry?

     In a recent column penned in the New York Post by Kyle Smith, he tries to find some

answers from "The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier and More Prosperous America" authored by Arthur Brooks.

     His words brought back a pleasant memory of times not too terribly long ago when

people shared more happiness than bitterness.

     According to Brooks' tome, we need to talk about increasing national happiness and

we're well positioned to do that because we know where happiness comes from: bedrock

values of faith, family, community and earned success through work.

     Brooks also notes that polls report that 80 percent of us are at least "fairly satisfied"

with our jobs, and half are either "completely" or "very" satisfied. The numbers hold up

across the classes; it's work itself, not the money it yields, that gives our lives meaning.  "The hedge fund hedge fund manager and the hedge trimmer are equally likely to say they like their work."

     He goes on to explain that the obverse of that is what lack of work does to us. Americans have slouched out of the workforce, creating conditions for soul-crushing misery.  Workforce participation, at 62.7 percent, recently hit a 36-year low.

     Unemployment isn't a passing economic illness that can be cured with government

checks. It makes unhappiness skyrocket and aids social breakdown by increasing divorce, suicide and health problems.

     The message to elected officials is: We need jobs. Create more and stop killing existing jobs. 

     The belief is that there are many Americans who believe life's compounded benefits

are produced by hard work and delayed gratification. Whatever their race or ethnicity, they practice the work ethic.

     As the government continues to aim at the richest and the poorest in our country, the

middle class works for a living, pays its own way and raises children to be good students

and law-abiding citizens. They make good neighbors and stable communities, and struggle up life's hills without unnecessary complaints or demands from someone else's labor.

     The far majority of Americans are deemed in the middle class. Officials are too preoccupied with plans to tax the rich and have the poor sign up for permanent government dependency (when they really want jobs). Meantime, the middle class gets stuck with the bill.

     There are many who need that aid, but there those who just want a job and an opportunity.

     More and more people in the middle class grow unhappy but these folks believe that

America is still the land of opportunity, while the government turns a blind eye to them

and rewards others who burn, riot and loot. If you complain, you could be labeled a bigot.

     As elections loom, if a politician was standing in front of you with a good job in one hand and a check in the other, which would you choose?