A reporter from The Wall Street Journal spoke to several people about the economy. One was Kristine Funck, a nurse in Ohio, has won steady pay raises, built retirement savings, and owns her home. The other was Alfredo Arguello, who opened a restaurant outside Nashville when the pandemic hit, now owns a second one, and employs close to 50 people.

Economists are noticing that while economic measures are improving, Americans are feeling gloomier. “Unstable” is how Arguello describes it. Said Funck: “Even though I’m OK right now, there’s a sense it could all go away in a second.” There’s a striking disconnect that has puzzled economists and business owners.

But press Americans harder, and the immediate economy emerges as only one factor in the gloomy outlook. Americans feel sour about the economy, many say, because their long-term security feels fragile and vulnerable to wide-ranging social and political threats.

Interviews with Americans across the country—some affluent, some just scraping by; some with advanced degrees and others with blue-collar jobs; some Republican, some Democrat—show they are weighed down by fears of an unpredictable world in which no one in government or business is competent to steer the nation through precarious times.

“You could argue unemployment is 3.7%, but who cares with this level of uncertainty?” said Arguello. “Because that’s what people are feeling. They’re not feeling hope. They’re not feeling one country. They’re feeling a divisive, divided United States of America.”