According to The Progress Paradox: How life gets better while people feel worse by Gregg Easterbrook, the average westerner lives better than 99.4% of all human beings who have ever lived. By any measure of affluence – health care, leisure, technology – the average American enjoys a quality of life beyond anyone’s wildest dreams even 30 years ago. We have more of everything except – happiness! The percentage of Americans who characterize themselves as ‘happy’ has been in decline since the 1950’s. Those who rate themselves ‘very happy’ is lower still. The percentage of Americans suffering from depression has risen above 25%! How can that be??! I’m sure there are many factors involved, bu
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