This comes on the heels of Jonathan Haidt’s lengthy Atlantic feature “End the Phone-Based Childhood Now,” which attributes mental health problems to cultural and technological shifts that have pivoted kids away from play and toward being plugged into their devices.

Some of this may be attributable to younger generations struggling to find meaning in their lives—possibly a temporary failure, not one that will plague them for the rest of their days—and taking for granted the massive gains that alter the world they’ve inherited. Or it is possible that they’re legitimately unwell, en masse, or it could be some combination of all of the above.

But it’s worth mulling the gains we’ve made. Work today is—on average—safer, less physically arduous, and more intellectually stimulating than the work of 30 or 50 years ago. Money kinda sorta buys some level of happiness, and our level of wealth and economic freedom in America is nothing to sniff at. “As many traditional, tangible sources of suffering disappear, the expectation that we should feel good all the time increases; when we don’t, we suddenly start talking in psychiatric terms, even though stress and sadness are part of a good life,” wrote Johan Norberg for Reason last year.

None of that is to dismiss legitimate reasons why youths in particular might be struggling: Schools have reported massive pandemic-induced learning loss and greater issues with disciplinary infractions. Math test scores and reading proficiency rates are in trouble across the United States. But it’s possible that too much hay is being made of the happiness report, and that some of the problem lies with young adults’ expectations. After all, it’s the former Soviets that have seen massive gains in the happiness rankings—perhaps in part because their material conditions have drastically improved, but also because people appreciate the fact that prosperity and abundance are not certainties.

Copycat states: Earlier this week, Reason covered S.B. 4, the law that has not gone into effect yet but is being held up in court, which would allow Texas law enforcement to arrest those who’ve illegally crossed the southern border. On Tuesday, Iowa lawmakers passed a copycat piece of legislation that would make it a state crime for an illegal immigrant to enter Iowa after having been deported.

Now other states are toying with similar legislation. Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri are all considering similar bills, but the success of this strategy largely depends on what happens to the Texas law, the legality of which will most likely be weighed by the Supreme Court. Republican lawmakers in West Virginia, Mississippi, and Arizona have all attempted to pass similar laws but have faced opposition—like, in Arizona’s case, a Democratic governor’s veto—that thwarted their efforts.

Each state setting its own deportation policy seems unlikely to hold up legally, but that’s not to say stunt bills won’t work to curry favor with Republican voters and further embarrass the Biden administration, which has struggled to get the border influx under control.