Pretty well, in my experience.

Yeah, that's why most countries in EU, as well as US, are in a huge dissarray, politicians have all time low approvals, people vote for something and get the opposite, and the economy and social climate turned to shit...

I guess one doing well enough can be oblivious to all this...

Try to read less tabloids.

LOL, talk about out of touch. You need the press to tell you that?

You can also just read "prestige press" - it will tell you the same. Or socio-economic indicators.