The average vocabulary (in the USA) is depressingly weak

Are the words we use every day shallow and weak compared to the vocabulary in the past? Seems like it.

According to the Merriam-Webster website dictionary, there are approximately a million words in the English language. But the average vocabulary of a native speaker is only 20,000-35,0000 words. That's 2-3.5% of the entire language.

Wow, that's sad...

I just looked up these statistics for this point. I knew it was sad, but now that is just depressing.

2% of the language. That's what everyday adults use every day. The other 98% of the language is lost and forgotten in books that are never read and conversations that are never had.