Did you know that even in these chaotic times, most Americans still feel, quote, very proud and quote, very grateful to be an American, and that a majority, 60% still view America as the land of opportunity.

But about that same number, think that our friends are. view America as the land of opportunity.

But about that same number think that our freedoms are at risk, and we could lose them if we are not careful.

All this data comes from the Cato Institute's latest survey asking people how they define being an American, the state of

our democracy, and what issues are important to them. It's a wide-ranging and insightful survey,

and today it's designer, Kato's vice president and director of Poland, Emily Eakins, joins us to discuss what Americans have to say.

I'm Stephen Rowe, program director of Cato courses, and this is the Cato podcast.

Emily, how's it going today?

Great. Great to be with you, Stephen.

It's great to be with you, too.

And so this is a fantastic poll, and there's a lot of things coming out of this.

What are some of the most noteworthy findings from this year's survey?

Any notable changes since last year?

Well, I have to say, the finding that really jumped out at me was, you know, as you know,

we're not just celebrating the Fourth of July this year, we're celebrating America's 250th.

It's been 250 years since the birth of our nation.

And we asked people, do they know what America's 250th is commemorating? And we found

that nearly half said they don't know what we're celebrating. And among Generation Z, so these

are Americans, you know, 18 to 30 about that age group, 61% said they have no idea what we're celebrating this year.

And that really stood out to me because I think this is an opportunity for us as a nation

to reflect on the founding principles and ideals of this country and to think about, are we

moving, are we maintaining those, are we striving towards those, are we moving away from them? But it's hard to have that conversation if many of us don't even know what we're celebrating.

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