We all tend to idealize the good old days and the golden era by gone. Most of the examples we've been talking about are referring to the last 10, 20, 30 years. My guess would be if there were a time machine and you could take a one-way trip back into any year before the year of your own birth and just live there as an average person. I mean, I think just what American life was like 100 years ago. At that time less than 1% of the population attended college.
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.