The Progress Paradox : How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse

Rating:
Summary: Progress Does Not Create Happiness.
Review: The author is a senior editor of 'The New Republic' and a contributing editor of 'The Atlantic Monthly." Yet, it was the review in January, 2005, 'The Saturday Evening Post' which let me know of its existence. It's another book about happiness (or lack thereof), only he stresses the paradox of how unhappiness and the rise of unipolar depression (condition in which someone always feels 'blue') are ten times as prevalent as fifty years ago.

Paul Fain wrote in the local paper that this new branch of economics is called 'Happiness ecomonics.' His information shows that time with family and good health are the 'stuff of happiness.' The sad truth is that we're twice as rich as we were in 1957, but only half as happy. So, what else is new? He goes on: "of the family-related factors, marital status is the most critical. He claims that having sex once a week as opposed to once a month is equivalent to the amount of happiness generated by getting an additional $50,000 in income for the average American." His research shows that sex is better for your happiness than money. That's not to say that being financially poor but sexually active is the secret to a happy life. Nowhere did he mention religion and faith in God.

The percentage of Americans who describe themselves as 'happy' has not changed since the 1950s. I was happy and satisfied with my life during the last half of that decade. And I was not sexually active!

At a meeting of disgruntled residents in the high-rise apartment building where I presently live, the vice president of the Atlanta management company listened to the diverse complaints, skipping a few, from the crowded room. After an hour, touching on a miniscule of the unsavory happenings (most of which won't be addressed), she asked "Is anybody here happy?" and only one person raised a hand.

This is typical, according to this researcher, who stated that widespread incidence of melancholy and pessimism amidst better living conditions and freedoms hold significance beyond the 'proclivity to complain.' Stress, he feels, is a big factor for our unhappiness. Perhaps the breakdown of the family and long distances between parents and grown children make the sadness factor more prevalent, as the kids are busy leading their own sad lives, trying to make a living and procreate.

Because a large percentage of Americans are overweight and sleep fewer hours, their bodies become programmed to produce more cortisol, elevating stress. In the latest 'Scholastic Instructor,' the facts are that 17% of children and adolescents are seriously overweight. Less sugar, more exercise, and less t.v. viewing might cure what ails the majority instead of so much pill popping. Changing lifestyle using some type of vigorous walking half an hour each day, bike riding, or pumping iron in a gym can lessen the surplus of the stress hormone.

Anyone who does anything to excess can harm his body; now, even athletes are being denied too many water breaks as too much water is harmful (news to me!) and causes health problems. Some water systems (10%) have arsenic in drinking water.

He advises reading a book (not by Stephen King) before bedtime instead of t.v. as beneficial for a good nights sleep. Some paradoxes such as prosperity does not produce happiness. In the 1999 'Forbes' 400 list of American richest persons, 72% had been divorced at least once. We often make the mistake of assuming that money will solve all of our problems. Money will only solve money problems.


Our thriving society tends to escalate violence. In the pre-historic groups still in existence today in the Amazon River tribes, Somoa, Australian outback, some parts of South America, 60% of males die by violence. After the tsunami disaster, a similar group was discovered in SE Asia; one primitive was shown on ABC News shooting at a helicopter with a bow and arrow! He places blame on youthful violence on the contents of today's films which are produced.

In the past, 'insolvable' problems included pollution and crime; today global warming (which Al Gore wrote about) is escalating, as advocated by the author of 6 NIGHTMARES, Anthony Lake. The earth has sixteen million square miles of forest. A log can burn into ash, but ashes cannot reassemble themselves....unless, of course, they're from a phoenix, a mythological bird who reincarnates itself.

His personal opinion: "England's May 1940 decision to continue fighting Germany (WWII) was the single greatest event in world political history." Citing 'positive psychology' as a means of creating a utopia on earth leads one to wonder.

Americans speak of the 1950s as a Golden Age when things were simpler. Nostalgia plays a role in this glorification of the past, as does the progression from childhood to adulthood. The British speak of prewar London as a Golden Age of quieter life and higher cultures.

The fallacy is that a Golden Age could only have happened in the past. He ponders the proposed utopias all the way back to the Middle Ages, discussing Thomas Moore's 1516 book, UTOPIA, Greek philosopher Plato's platitudes, Roman poet Virgil's ARCADIA, Rousseau's Eden, and Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD.

If the Western World has known a Golden Age, it is right here, right now. It is ours to decide what the future will hold. If we decide well, the future may hold an even-better life, about which our descendants will complain. Happiness must come from within; money cannot buy it. Robert Frost wrote, "Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length."

The magazine reviewer writes that "perhaps Americans need a lesson in the fundamentals of gratitude." He goes on, "Our forebears worked hard and sacrificed so that we could have the freedom and prosperity we know. It is past time Americans showed some appreciation for this." We seem to think that our parents and grandparents had it better than we do at present, but the writer feels otherwise. According to him, these ancestors would say that the contemporary U.S. is the realization of utopia. Why then do the majority of us are far from feeling better about our lives, and many feeling much worse. Let's appreciate what life offers and do with it the best we can.

Rating:
Summary: Gregg Easterbrook has produced another winner.
Review: This book is eloquently written, with a subject that is both inspiring and troubling. Mr. Easterbrook writes about how today's population is gaining in many indicators of quality of life, yet seems to be declining in our ability to gain happiness. It's a book that will appeal to many different audiences, not just the Washington policy wonk crowd. It really makes you think about the meaning of our lives, and what we can do to make ourselves happier and America a better place for all. Plus, there's even some humor in it, which is always a plus.

Rating:
Summary: Refreshing, enlightening, down-to-earth
Review: This book is most definitely worth a read, at the very least for its statistics which prove why each of us in the Western world should pause to give thanks for all that we have. Easterbrook makes a convincing, well-researched argument that practically everything is getting better in America and the European Union, particularly when compared to 1 or 2 generations ago, in areas of crime, the environment, healthcare, education, and others. The typical middle-class American is so occupied with the work-and-acquisition cycle that s/he probably doesn't realize that the things within reach nowadays used to be only available to the super-rich (e.g., vacation homes, 3rd cars, swimming pools).

Easterbrook's optimism is not Pollyanna-ish. He knew that he would be writing for a mostly cynical and negative audience, so he took pains to research his book thoroughly, and it shows. It's true that he loses a bit of focus near the end of the book (for instance pontificating on modern Muslim society), and for that I'll dock him 1 star. But the points he makes are so necessary for selfish and unselfish Westerners alike to hear that this really should not deter potential readers.

Some reviewers criticize Easterbrook for not offering solutions to the paradox of why we're not happy when we have it so much better off than 99 percent of people who've ever lived (his quote, not mine). Easterbrook should have included a brief summary at the end of the book for the sake of short attention span Americans (like myself). According to my interpretation, he offers plenty of advice, but not in a heavy-handed instruction-manual format. If you read the book thoroughly, you will see that Easterbrook proposes numerous changes on the personal and societal level (and in fact, mentions several causes which people have been advocating for years). On the personal level, Easterbrook exhorts us to try to be as forgiving as possible and to feel grateful for what we have. In an interesting twist, he presents psychological research that proves those who adopt such attitudes live healthier lives -- hence it is in our own self-interest to be forgiving and grateful. On a societal level, Easterbrook appeals to our collective conscience and rightfully argues that 1 person in 8 should not and does not have to be poor in the richest nation on Earth. To that end he makes a case for a living wage, and lambastes corporate greed.

It is true that in some ways Easterbrook does not tell us what we don't already know, eg, money can't buy happiness, we should be thankful for all that we have, etc. Where Easterbrook succeeds is in demonstrating with scientifc precision how true this age-old wisdom is in the present day, and why we need to open our eyes to this more than ever. You may want to think about that while you're digging yourself out of holiday credit card debt.

As an aside, please don't be mislead by the fallacious summaries that several reviewers offer below. One reviewer takes a quote about SUVs from the book out of context -- SUVs are unsafe because an SUV is "more likely to harm the passengers in a car it collides with" (p 93) -- calling it a non sequitur. The reviewer fails to mention that on the very same page, Easterbrook does a satisfactory job of citing statistics that drivers and passengers INSIDE SUV's are slightly more likely to die than drivers and passengers in regular cars. Easterbrook's point was that SUVs make the road more dangerous for EVERYONE, both for those driving them (much higher rates of rollover fatalities) and for those drivers who have the misfortune of colliding with them (almost 5 times as likely to die from a side collision with an SUV than with a regular car).

Another reviewer erroneously states that Easterbrook says people will be unhappy until "the Lord returns to Earth." This quote is nowhere to be found in the book. While some may find Easterbrook's advocacy of greater financial equality in the Western world, for instance, to be "preachy", it is most certainly NOT a sermon, and he certainly does not take the stereotypical fundamentalist Christian viewpoint.

In summary, read this book and decide for yourself! You can check it out *for free* at your local public library.