Rating: 
Summary: Just preaching
Review: If I hadn't bought this book on line I might have read the blurbs on the back and noticed one of them was from George Will. He doesn't care for analysis and questioning. In that case I'd have been more wary of buying it.
After reading the first chapter I can see that the book is a Neo-con's dream. Easterbrook packs the first chapter with endless anecdotes bolstered by vague, and thus misleading, statistics. He then has the audcity to mention how easily statistics are twisted.
His point, with which he bludgeons the reader, is that life is getting better and better for everyone. His examples are entirely US centered. At one point he takes a few shots at Europe as a means of glorifying America, and he mentions that Europeans are far better off today than were their parents. He neglects to mention that their parents had to rebuild from the rubble of WWII.
The anecdotes he uses to show how much better off "average" Americans are include such things as private aircraft and vacation home ownership. Discussing the latter Easterbrook shows his true bias by suggesting that it is "working class" people creating havoc on the lakeside with their noisy motorized equipment to the chagrin of older (that is, wealthy) residents.
Finally he lets loose a few pot shots at that old favorite bugaboo, the dreaded liberal, in the midst of blaming the vast discrepancy in wealth in the US on immigration.
It's extremely clear that Easterbrook is not out to explore a timely idea (the one implied by his title) with an open mind, but simply to preach and marshal support for the conclusions he's already made. This is a classic Neo-con method. This is also the secret to their ability to make common cause with the religious right. Neither actually seeks to discover the truth, but only to bolster and fortify the conclusions they've already decided upon.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting read, but a bit poorly argumented
Review: easterbrook engagingly writes that, while everything may seem like it's getting worse every year, in the big historical sweep we are really living better than ever. paradoxically, happiness seems to have stalled out, and unhappiness seems to be increasing. he tosses out a number of theories about why this is, and how we might fix it. i have many criticisms of this book, including the `fast and loose' use of hundreds of interesting statistics, the failure to assemble his data into a rhetorically tight and compelling argument, an occasional tendency to slip off topic into somewhat personal rants, and the final third of the book seems a bit scattered and off-topic. yet despite all that i have to say i found nearly every paragraph interesting reading, and still really enjoyed it for taking up a challenging and provocative topic in a lively way.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed bag
Review: Easterbrook is all over the map in this book. On the one hand, his book is a welcome antidote for the Paul Erlich-esque hand-wringing, doom-and-gloomism constantly being showered on us. It also provides some of the best sketched-out refutation to existential angst that I've seen in print. Examples of its better points include: * "Many figures in philosophy, religion, politics, and other fields have recommended that others pay no heed to material concerns, while being obsessed with the same things themselves" (p 145). Excellent point, and for a very engaging expansion of that point, read Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals." * "On its face, existential despair appears self-canceling: If life really is pointless, why bother to get upset about that? Wouldn't getting upset be pointless?" (p 253). * Positive psychology provides more help for people than earlier, negative methods. * By and large, things are getting better, not worse. But the book's failures are also many and glaring: * at its core, the book is contradictory. Easterbrook appropriately harps on the fact in the first 150 pages that astounding progress has been made in an absolute sense. For example, a car made today emits only 2% of the pollutants of a car made in 1970. But particularly at the end of the book, Easterbrook throws this all away and begins berating us for problems that exist in a relative sense, something he spends the first part of the book shredding. He then begins rolling out typical old-time liberalism: mandated universal health insurance (pp 255-7); elimination of SUVs (pp 92,93); increase in the minimum wage to a "living wage" whatever that is (pp 260-3); Bush-favors-the-rich bashing (p 247); CEO bashing (p 266-77); subsidized housing for drug addicts (p 259); more foreign aid (309). And when he says that in the U.S. "millions of people not only have more than they need, but have, in many ways, more than is good for them" (p 258), then you should, as Robert J. Ringer would say, "Hold on to your chips," 'cuz he's coming after them. * "Until the day when everyone is released from basic want, a sword will hang over Western abundance" (p 68). This from the guy that complains about "amplified anxiety" (p 111). Who will wield this sword anyway? And exactly who is going to "release" the whole world from basic want, and how are they going to get the money to do it? * "A reason Western economies keep performing better may be that capitalism has been supplanted by market economies" (p 67). In response to that non sequitur, I would only ask, What kind of economy existed during capitalism then? * SUVs are unsafe because an SUV is "more likely to harm the passengers in a car it collides with" (p 93). To *that* non sequitur, I'll only ask: What vehicle do *you* want to be in when you get into an accident? * "But the mid-1990s rise of road rage coincided with the onset of SUV mania" (p 94). Ahem! Having lived in L.A. in the late 1980s, I can definitively refute that asinine comment. * In the 1990s culture wars, "the right claimed the left was...opposed to reading of the classics" (p 103). Yeah -- that's absolutely correct. For instance, anyone remember the $20 million Bass Grant controversy with Yale? Hmm? * "Each of the three Die hard movies...depicted dozens of police officers being gunned down" (p 115). Now this is a supposed fact that we can easily verify for accuracy. Let's see: counting the two special agent Johnsons, the helicopter pilot and two cops in the armored vehicle ("What do we have here...it seems the police have themselves an RV"), that comes to a grand total of five police officers killed. Add in the two rent-a-cops in the beginning of the movie just to be generous, and you're talking seven. Not exactly "dozens" is it? How can Easterbrook expect to have us take him seriously on the big facts when he can't get the small ones right? * "...luck is simply part of life, but [we] should acknowledge this means that those who experience good luck acquire significant obligations to those who do not" (p 154). That sounds too much like a Dick Gephardt "lucky in life's lottery" line, which is a set-up for a soak-the-rich line. Easterbrook casually tosses this out without a discussion of premises (how exactly does one "acquire" an obligation to another person whom you have never met and who lives thousands of miles away?) as well as its practice (who is to distinguish luck from unequal effort?). * "When free-market conservatives begin to suppose that something beyond the free market is necessary for human happiness, a threshold has come into view" (p 250). First off, is there such a thing as a free-market liberal? I can't think of one. Second off, I know a straw man when I see one. Conservatives, by definition, are the group that understands the importance of religion and culture, and not just free trade. * When the U.S. based troops in Saudi Arabia, we were "asserting suzerainty over much of Islam's oil wealth"; American agents picked the current Saudi ruling family "with oil interests in mind" (p 297). Uh HUH. I guess that's why oil is so cheap right now, right? And invasion of one Moslem country by another had nothing to do with it. As for who got picked and why, I encourage Easterbrook to brush up on his post WW I history with a little Bernard Lewis. * Mohammedan terrorists are compared to Timothy McVeigh: "the Christian ethos spawned its share of hideous killers, among them the terrorist Timothy McVeigh" (p 299). Unlike Easterbrook, apparently, I was alive and awake after 9/11, and the silence of the imams in America was deafening. Does Easterbrook think we don't know the difference between a nutjob like McVeigh and a current of religious thinking with tens of millions of adherents? Besides, when exactly did McVeigh say that Jesus told him kill all those people? Superficial, glib and sophomoric comparisons just make you look like a hack, an apologist or an idiot. Overall, I have to give the book three stars because it gores so many of the left's sacred cows. You just don't find that in mainstream books, and it has to be recognized. But this achievement is marred by careless and inconsistent writing, and even occasionally by knee-jerk liberal cliches.
Rating:
Summary: By every measure, life is better than ever!
Review: Greg Easterbrook informs readers that our perceptions of life today are wrong. By every objective measure such as life span, overall health, income levels, housing, luxuries, leisure time, etc., life is better today than it ever has been. So why aren't we happier than ever? The first few chapters explain how life is better than ever, which left me feeling quite inspired and grateful to have been born now vs. in the past. No matter how much we romanticize the past, life is just better today! Small personal note here, I think that I may disagree with him a little bit. I believe my parent's generation did do a little better than us. Almost everyone my age were kids when their parents were my age, and we remember our houses when we were kids being bigger, and generally having better vacations, cars, etc., then we can afford now that we are that age. But that may be peculiar to just my social circle. The following chapters discusses new problems brought about by improved living conditions, such as traffic, noise, feeling rushed, too many choices to make, etc. All are better to deal with than the old problems that had existed before. They also deal with why people, who are living better than 99% of the people who have ever existed, aren't happier than they are. Lack of spirituality, lots of spare time to be depressed, and a constant barrage of negative news seem to be the answer. This is one of the reasons I find it difficult to watch the news any more. It's 24 hours a day of terrorism, war, crime, death, global warming, and predictions of bad things that will come. The last couple of chapters is where Mr. Easterbrook misses the mark. He points out we still have serious problems like lack of universal health care and poverty. He is alluding that government should step in and solve these problems, not realizing he is contradicting almost everything prior in the book. Our lives have improved largely due to freedom and the marketplace allowing us to create and grow richer. Why does he believe gov't is the solution to these other problems? Why not turn the marketplace loose on these problems instead so people can find ways to enrich themselves by helping others? I also believe he doesn't explain what poverty is in the US today. If your family of four lives in a two bedroom apartment, with power, heat, tv and no one starving, does that sound like being poor? Well, that's how many poor families in the US live today. That lifestyle would be considered well off in much of the rest undeveloped world, and living very well considering the lives of people of generations past. Overall, I enjoyed the book and have become more appreciative of just how lucky we are today.
Rating: 
Summary: It's time for this book
Review: I know there are a lot of naysayers out there, but I found this book very interesting and would recommend it to anyone. Some people just don't want to hear the positive news about life (a media conspiracy?), but for those who want a more positive perspective, I think Easterbrook has done a very good job of making the case that we have much to appreciate and be grateful for. Especially in these days when the news from Iraq is so discouraging, I believe this is a very worthwhile and well-reasoned book.
Rating:
Summary: Back to the basics Matt M
Review: I thought this book showed what we already know, that the western world and technology has made our lives better and more convenient, yet we are more stressed and unhappy in the process. I enjoyed the statistics early on, and although i love all the technology i use (mainly computers) we need to get back to the basics and learn to relax. everything is rushed and on demand to be at your fingertips in an instant which i am guilty of, but i believe that wed be better off as a people being more simplistic. I found it very interesting that everyone these days actually works much less in more white collar work for a more comfortable living wage yet unhappiness has risen, a very interesting book.
Rating:
Summary: THINK ABOUT THIS
Review: If most statistical trends (according to Easterbrook et. al.) for general well being are positive, why is the human race as a whole less happy? I applaud Gregg and all of the big thinkers at The Brookings Institution for posing such a lucrative question. I BORROWED and enjoyed the book. I even felt somewhat optimistic by the end....
I cannot argue that this book is scientific, moralistic, or any other perspective. The study of happiness is not now nor will it ever be a hard science. One thing I do know is that many of the leading "investigators" in this hot, new field come from an elite sector of our society: the Thinktank.
WHY IS THAT?
I DO NOT recommend buying this book, as by now you have already been bombarded by variations of its message through the mainstream media. However, I believe most readers will find this book interesting, and it will also help generate some important discussion.
One reason more people are unhappy in the world today can be found in John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hitman: "The inside story of how America turned from a respected republic into a feared empire." Why is the mainstream media not discussing this NY Times best-selling book?
Rating:
Summary: Informative
Review: In this work, author Gregg Easterbrook shares with us the many advances in living that America has experienced. I found this part of the read extremely interesting and truly enjoyed reading about experiences such as 'fly-in restaurtants,' I never knew they existed. I loved all the little facts he told as he compared the past to the present concerning our living condictions, our health care and even the cars we drive. I felt it was very interesting, and very well constructed.
It is true that the author does go off into how we should be helping the rest of the world, and surely that is true. However, I feel much is being done to help and still more will be done in the future, nothing can be accomplished overnight. Many open their hearts and their pocketbooks to the best of their ability every single day.
In my opinion, with most people, if they have they are more willing to give. I know there are always those who are greedy no matter what, but basically I feel if one is comfortable in their life-style they are more open to help others.
I felt this book was extremely interesting and I didn't feel any guilt trip concerning the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.' I believe the author was just sharing facts and options for the future as he sees them. I enjoyed the book.
Shirley Johnson
Rating:
Summary: Great start, uneven finish
Review: Mr. Easterbrook makes a very convincing argument that those of us who live in the developed nations are part of a world that would be considered the utopian ideal by persons from past generations--even very recent ones. But after laying out all the facts the book just kind of stalled. Assuming that the author was preparing to argue an hypothesis about the effects of progress on individuals and civilization I kept waiting for the book to draw some inferences about the future or to make a more detailed argument about how to deal with the advance of civilization. What efforts by individuals and societal initiatives are the most rewarded by individual satisfaction and positive overall results?
Perhaps the book's flaw was that the first part of the work cited to specific research showing how civilization has resolved many of its problems but then shifts into a much more general argument that the remaining problems can be solved if everyone decides to cooperate and play nice. I was hoping to see many more specific recommendations.
I still give the book 4 stars based upon the great first half and would not hestitate to recommend the book as a counterargument to the typical doom-and-gloom philosophy that is a staple of the op-ed page.
Rating:
Summary: OK, I Get It . .
Review: Mr. Easterbrook makes a very convincing case that almost everyone is better off than their ancestors from even a generation ago. Incomes are up, most people own homes, we eat out lost, and education is available almost universally. From his evidence, you'd think that everyone would be turning cartwheels on the front lawns of their mansions, but the opposite is true. More and more people complain of stress, overwork and depression. Part of that may come from the fact that we are constantly striving to keep up with our friends and neighbors as they buy more toys and bigger houses to hold them. After presenting the evidence of better societal standards, Mr. Easterbrook switches gears and proposes ways for society to cure its remaining ills, including redistribution of wealth from the wealthiest and an agenda for raising the prospects of second and third world countries. As much as I agree with Mr. Easterbrook's ideals, he couldn't propose an agenda that would realistically accomplish them. At the end of the book, I concluded that I was fortunate to have the abundance of wealth and health that I do, but did not walk away with any idea how to reach the societal goals that Mr. Easterbrook values.
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