Propaganda
If people are scared it's because they're reading the papers and watching the idiots on the news. Recent surveys on many issues consistently show respondents who think their own lives are okay, but that the country stinks.
The numbers are what they are. They're facts.
Bill Clinton was reelected in 1996 as the press trumpeted the "strength of the economy."
President Clinton capped a remarkable personal comeback last night to become the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win reelection, boosted to a landslide electoral-vote victory by the healthy economy that he had made his top priority.
...Clinton benefited from two changes in the public mood since 1994, when voters threw the Democrats out of Congress. Two years ago, during the Republican sweep, a majority of voters described the country as heading in the wrong direction. Yesterday, a majority said it believed the country was now going in the right direction. Two years ago, only 4 in 10 voters offered positive appraisals of the economy, but yesterday a solid majority described the economy as in good shape.
The unemployment rate is lower now than it was at the end of 1996, (5.0 vs. 5.2 percent), the poverty rate is lower (12.3 percent vs. 13.7 percent), and the percentage of people without health insurance is lower (15.3 percent vs. 15.6 percent). I could find other statistics if you want, but it's a lot of work.
Sorry, but a lot of this IS the "propaganda campaign." There are real problems, not least of which is the price of energy. But on most of the rest of the economic fronts that affect the average person you, and the people riding your bus, are being had.