I asked ChatGPT If you had to pick one year that was the best year in modern history to live in America what would you say? It said:

🇺🇸 1999

Here’s why 1999 stands out:

✅ Economic Peak

• Unemployment was 4.1%, the lowest in 30 years

• The stock market was booming (near the peak of the dot-com bubble)

• Wages were rising, inflation was low, and the federal budget had a surplus

• Median household income reached new highs (adjusted for inflation)

✅ Peace and Stability

• No major wars (pre-9/11 world)

• High trust in institutions

• Violent crime had declined steadily since the early ’90s

✅ Tech Optimism

• The internet was becoming mainstream but still felt decentralized and hopeful

• Google had just launched (1998), and everyone was excited about the future of tech

✅ Cultural High Point

• Pop culture was fun and less polarized:

Think The Matrix, Fight Club, Britney Spears, NSYNC, and Napster

• TV had The Sopranos, Friends, The West Wing

• There was a sense of millennium anticipation, not dread

✅ Social Progress

• The country was far from perfect (e.g., LGBTQ rights and racial equity had a long way to go),

but many Americans felt upwardly mobile and socially optimistic