When did people start bifurcating and polarizing in America? When life expectancy stopped going up

As long as life was getting better for everyone, we could tolerate inequality. But when progress stalled, we started looking for someone to blame.

For decades, life expectancy in the U.S. went up every year. It didn't matter if your neighbor was richer than you—your kids were going to live longer than you did, and that felt like progress.

Then it stopped. And in some places, it started going down.

Suddenly, income inequality wasn't just unfair—it was existential. Because if the future isn't getting better, then the only way to win is to take from someone else. That's when polarization kicks in.

People don't radicalize when things are bad. They radicalize when things stop improving. When the story of progress breaks, we start writing new stories—and those stories are almost always about enemies.

If we want to fix polarization, we don't need better arguments. We need a better future.