The Rise of Stress and Anxiety in Modern Life

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There are four or five things I propose in the progress paradoxes, counterbalancing factors. The material standards would rise and yet people feel no happier. People who believe their lives have meaning are much more likely to be happy than people who believe that life is meaningless. It does not matter whether you derive that belief from religious faith or from ethical philosophy.

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.