I'm responding to the "Enough complaints, be thankful" letter published June 1. While I think there's a lot to be proud of within Connecticut, and indeed the entire country, Mr. Sullivan seems to desire shutting down any potentially productive conversation that could be used to improve the nation even further.

The curmudgeonly attitude in the letter reminds me of how noted thin-skinned autocrat Xi Jinping dismissed the struggles of younger job seekers in China, telling them to "eat bitterness" in late spring 2023. Sure, previous generations faced events like the World Wars, but Sullivan seems to entirely ignore the contemporary housing issues and student debt that he mentions, while offering a callous and incredibly unrealistic "solution" to credit card debt. Not to mention other economic issues, like wage stagnation and the shrinking of the middle class.

I don't think the country's a terrible place at all, and I'm very proud to be an American, but it seems that Sullivan would rather us ignore the issues and instead engage in mass delusion, not unlike North Korea.

Max Ian Engel

East Lyme