I must admit that the results of this poll surprised me. Americans are notoriously ethnographic-centric, and in the past if you had asked them if the U.S. was the best place to live in the world, a clear majority would have said yes. It looks like that is no longer true.
According to this recent poll, only 28% now say that. Another 17% say it is among the best places to live. Even putting those two together is only 45% -- less than a majority. You would have to add the 37% who say the U.S. is just above average to get a majority (82%).
One would have to conclude that many people are starting to be disillusioned with life in the U.S. -- probably because of the divisive politics, and the failure of government to address the problems facing the country.
As the chart below shows, there is a marked difference in the views of Trump and Clinton voters on this question.
These results are from the recent NBC News /Wall Street Journal Social Trends Poll -- done between August 5th and 9th of a random national sample of 1,200 adults, with a margin of error of 2.8 points.
