Common Cents Blog

This is a great story. Turns out Harvard University has been studying happiness for some 90 years, tracking kids throughout their lifetimes and even their kids. And the results are what you might think - it's not material things that make us happy - its our relationships! Pass it on please - so many people would benefit from this post!! Via Townhall.

What 90 Years of Harvard Research Says About Happiness

Wealth, fame, and success still don’t make us happy — but strong relationships do.
That has been the consistent message from the Harvard Study of Adult Development — the longest-running scientific study of adult life in the world.
The study began in 1938, tracking the health and well-being of 724 young men — 268 Harvard College sophomores and 456 boys from some of Boston’s toughest inner-city neighborhoods. Researchers interviewed their parents, conducted medical exams, and followed the participants closely for the rest of their lives.
Nearly 90 years later, researchers are now studying more than 1,300 of the original subjects’ offspring and their spouses. The findings remain rock-solid: good relationships keep us healthier and happier. Period.
Harvard psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, the study’s fourth director, summed it up this way in a Harvard Gazette interview: “Loneliness kills. It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism.”
And Americans are increasingly lonely.
A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 16 percent of U.S. adults say they feel lonely or isolated all or most of the time, and 38 percent say they sometimes feel that way.
So why do we ignore what we already know?
We chase success, more money, and bigger houses stuffed with more things.
We’d rather scroll our phones than call our friends. We have more “virtual” connections than ever, yet people report feeling lonelier than ever.
Meanwhile, happiness — which might be sitting right across the dinner table — gets neglected.
The Harvard team found that it’s not the number of relationships that matters — it’s their quality. You can be lonely in a crowd. You can be lonely in a marriage. What counts is having even one or two people in your life you can rely on when everything goes sideways.
Relationships take time and effort — but the payoff is better sleep, better mental health, better physical health, stronger memory, and longer life. The real fountain of youth isn’t bottled water with electrolytes — it’s having someone who will drive you to the doctor and stick by your side when you need help.
Think about your own happiest moments. They didn’t involve impressing people with a fancy job title or showing off a big new SUV.
No, your happiest memories involve the people who touch the deepest part of who you are: your spirit and soul.
The key to happiness: friends who make you laugh so hard your gut aches; relatives who sit with you when life hits you hard; loved ones who turn ordinary days into warm, lasting memories.
Here’s another kicker: fame and fortune often make happiness harder. When you’re rich and a bit famous, the people who want something from you multiply — but the people who are there for you, no strings attached, shrink.
You never really know who your true friends are until the money is gone.
If you want to be happier and healthier, put quality relationships first. Call your siblings. Meet a friend for lunch. Play cards with neighbors. Show up when someone needs you. Let others show up when you are in need.
Or to rephrase the great Kenny Rogers: All anyone needs to be happy is people to love, people to do things with and people to look forward to doing things with.

Again via Townhall

Happiness Is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual Paperback – Dennis Prager

Monday, December 8, 2025

Inflation Update - Gas UNDER $3 a gallon in 37 states // Under $2 a gallon in 4 states!!

WINNING! Turns out that there are now 37 status in the US where gasoline is under $3 a gallon - and several (4) where it's under $2 a gallon!

Gas Below $3 in 37 States, Thanks to New American Energy Boom

Fuel costs are at the heart of our nation's economy. When prices for gasoline and diesel fuel are high, it's a hidden tax on everything in our economy. Increased shipping costs mean increased prices, and increased prices that outpace wages mean decreased buying power. It makes it harder to go see family and friends, as millions of Americans did in the holiday week just past; whether we fly or drive, it costs more.
There's good news, though: Gas prices just seem to keep dropping in the Age of Trump. Average petrol prices at the pump are under $3/gallon in 37 states, and in Colorado, that price is reportedly as low as $1.69 a gallon.
The nationwide average for regular gas is at its lowest level in 1,681 days — and trending lower. According to GasBuddy, average gas prices have dipped below $3 per gallon in 37 states, below $2.75 per gallon in 22 states, and below $2.50 per gallon in five states.
In fact, Americans can even find gas below $2 per gallon at some stations in at least four states — with prices as low as $1.69 per gallon in Colorado.
Under Biden, gas prices were the highest they had ever been, even after he drained our strategic reserves to artificially decrease prices. So far in President Trump’s second term, Americans on track to spend the lowest amount of their disposable income on gas in the last two decades amid the Trump Administration’s pursuit of American energy dominance.
It’s part of an emerging trend of strong economic news, backed up by data.
Financial guru Dave Ramsey, speaking with Fox News, had this to say:
First, rates are down, and gas prices are down below $3 in most places. And the economy seems to be... People we're talking to are really not having huge, serious affordability problems. There's a lot of talking heads, there's a lot of squawking about that, but most of that's political.
Most of it is, yes, political.

Via RedState

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