There is an assumption that if you're happy that things are improving, that that must mean you're complacent. The final chapter of the Progress Paradox is called, It's Never Too Late to Change the World. I argue there that tremendous improvements in things that seem like unsolvable problems such as crime decline and pollution decline. Tell us that we can create positive trends anywhere we turn.
Author Gregg Easterbrook talks about the ideas in his latest book, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse. How has life changed in America over the last century? Is the average person getting ahead or are the rich taking all the gains? Easterbrook argues that life is better for the average American in almost every dimension. The paradox is that despite those gains, we don't seem much happier.