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

by Gregg Easterbrook

In The Progress Paradox, Gregg Easterbrook draws upon three decades of wide-ranging research and thinking to make the persuasive assertion that almost all aspects of Western life have vastly improved in the past century--and yet today, most men and women feel less happy than in previous generations. Why this is so and what we should do about it is the subject of this book.

Between contemporary emphasis on grievances and the fears engendered by 9/11, today it is common to hear it said that life has started downhill, or that our parents had it better. But objectively, almost everyone in today’s United States or European Union lives better than his or her parents did.

Still, studies show that the percentage of the population that is happy has not increased in fifty years, while depression and stress have become ever more prevalent. The Progress Paradox explores why ever-higher living standards don’t seem to make us any happier. Detailing the emerging science of “positive psychology,” which seeks to understand what causes a person’s sense of well-being, Easterbrook offers an alternative to our culture of crisis and complaint. He makes a Compelling case that optimism, gratitude, and acts of forgiveness not only make modern life more fulfilling but are actually in our self-interest.

Seemingly insoluble problems of the past, such as crime in New York City and smog in Los Angeles, have proved more tractable than they were thought to be. Likewise, today’s “impossible” problems, such as global warming and Islamic terrorism, can be tackled too.

Like The Tipping Point, this book offers an affirming and constructive way of seeing the world anew. The Progress Paradox will change the way you think about your place in the world, and about our collective ability to make it better.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Economics, Sociology, Cultural, Self Help, Science

376 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 2003

About the author

I was born in Buffalo, New York and have lived there plus Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Colorado, Pakistan and Washington, D.C. My wife is a State Department official, which accounts for the globe-trotting. We have three children, boys born in 1989 and 1995 and a girl born in 1990.

I’ve published three literary novels, nine nonfiction books, with a tenth nonfiction book coming September 2021. The nonfiction is all over the map – economics, theology, psychological, environmental policy. If I had my writing career to do over again, I suppose I would have focused on a single genre, which makes commercial success more likely. Then again, I’ve always written about whatever was on my mind, and feel fortunate to have had that opportunity.

I am proud of my novels, which have gotten great reviews but not otherwise been noticed by the world. I hope someday that will change. Novel #4 is completed for 2022 publication.

I have been associated with The Atlantic Monthly as a staff writer, national correspondent or contributing editor. I have also written extensively for the Washington Monthly, the New Republic, the New York Times, Reuters and the Los Angeles Times.

My quirky football-and-society column Tuesday Morning Quarterback is on hiatus after an 18-year run. I may revive TMQ in the future. Right now the Internet environment is too toxic for any form of quality writing. I have retreated to books. Which is a good place to be!

Reviews

[Rod Hilton · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is pretty frustrating - it's rare for me to feel like I want to reach into a book and slap the author for being a dumbass, but I had that feeling multiple times reading this book.

The first portion of the book is essentially someone taking hours to say "everyone is miserable, but look how much better off we are than 50 or 100 years ago with regard to various advancements." Essentially the author is saying stop complaining, everything is great. He laments what whiners people are, given how they complain despite being so well off. He talks about how much money people have and how we can afford all sorts of great things.

Of course, the reality is that people are able to afford so much not because we have more wealth, but because we accumulate more debt. The average American is saddled with credit card debt, and many Americans have been using their homes as equity, treating their houses as ATM machines despite the fact that their houses are overvalued. Reading these portions of the book in light of the housing crash was extremely irritating.

Easterbrook goes on to dwell on just how much better our lives are by pointing to the fact that people sell so many useless things. The example which titles the relevant chapter is the existence of little carpeted steps for your pets. After all, we must be rich if we can afford steps to help our dogs onto our couches, right? Another example he uses of our society of excess is the fact that so many people have paper shredders. He argues that people don't need to shred their papers, so this is excessive wealth on display. Easterbrook, you're an idiot. Paper shredders weren't necessary for the average consumer in the 50's, but they are today. Information is far more valuable today than it used to be, and getting ahold of someone's social security number or credit card number in the age of computers can, and often does, lead to identity theft. Identify theft wasn't as possible sixty years ago, but it is today. People can and do comb through trash for information that can be used to steal identities - in modern society, it is not a good idea to throw sensitive information in the trash without first sending it through a diamond-cross-shredder.

After about the halfway mark, the book takes a marked turn into, ironically enough, Easterbrook complaining endlessly. He discusses various problems with the world and argues that we have an obligation to solve those. He offers solutions which lack any understanding of basic economics. One particularly annoying example is that poor people can't buy nice sandwiches for lunch (not kidding). He argues that everyone should be able to live such that they don't have to worry about stuff like that, so we should substantially increase the minimum wage. I sat there, wishing I could explain to him that doing so would wind up driving up the prices of these sandwiches (since the supplier has to pay their workers more now), but Easterbrook argued that the prince increase would only really affect the rich. I've heard good and bad arguments for minimum wage increases, but Easterbrook's may be the worst. As I sat there, wishing I could tell Easterbrook how much I disagree with him, he went on to say that "only a coldhearted person" would disagree with him. What an ass.

I found myself infuriated for most of this book. Easterbrook barely supports any of his assertions with scientific studies or even surveys. Most of his propositions are unsupported opinion, which eventually transitions into ill-informed opinion as the book goes on. Just plain awful.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not finish. I should have not picked up this book. It is a book full of shallow research and statistics built upon a flimsy premise that because we are better off today than 50+ years ago, we have no use pointing out inequalities. I am all for seeing things positively but prefer reading Shawn Achor or another positive thinker over Easterbrook. I found myself too dismissive of the premise to carry on with reading this book.

[Michael Hutchings · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what I've been trying to tell you. We think things are getting better, but we are more miserable than ever. This is a very timely book. It gets pretty repetitious and could be about half the length (and it's not all that long to begin with), but it's worth wading through restatement after restatement. While I don't agree with all the conclusions and examples, the chapter on the health benefits of forgiving others is a classic.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book because Easterbrook puts together a lot of insightful thoughts together, but he just does it in such a maddening way that it makes it hard to follow.

The beginning of the book is all about how things have trended up, up, up. Many were eye-opening, but many were anecdotal or seemingly repetitive, and it just became very difficult to read fact after fact, no matter how interesting they were.

Later in the book he delved into some other disparate ideas like the brief history of Islam, and then 19th century psychology, and then utopian visions throughout history...you see where I'm going. It's got some of the irreverence and haphazardness of his TMQ articles, but without the brevity.

It didn't help that it was written in 2003 so there's also been a lot of changes in some key metrics, not the least of which is US immigration policy which has changed drastically in just the last few weeks and was a major talking point throughout the book.

I didn't dislike it and I'm glad I read through it, but I'm glad I'm done.

[Graydon · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are not aware of the many privileges we partake of every day in the developed world this book will help to open your eyes. The concept of Americans privilege in relation to Americans mood and attitude is intriguing to say the least. Eastbrook offers many poignant thoughts on problems with the current norm of thinking within the United States. The book does cover a lot of different stats to support the thesis which can get a little dry at certain points. The statistics are important in the comparison of different generations. I understand that when it comes to statistics you can always debate how they can be subjective or even inaccurate when comparing complex social systems between generations. I think though that using statistics within your analyses of a complex question or conundrum can be of great benefit in understanding the situation and solution. At the end of the book I felt very grateful for the country that I live in that offers so many convieniences that people throughout the world dont have. I wanted to help those less fortunate, I wanted to make a differnce, I never wanted to complain again. All things that are much easier said than done. But as it is mentioned in this book; just to be able to complain about the things we compain about says something regarding all we have and should help us find gratitude.

[Chantal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book falls right in line with my way of thinking. Life is getting better. I get annoyed with persistent pessimists because a lot of times, they aren't seeing life for what it truely is. I enjoyed the fact that he factually backed up this notion of mine. However, there came a point where I was done reading all of the statistics. I think if I had read this book years ago it could have had a very profound impact, but by now I've kind of learned most of what he says, i.e. marriage, sociality, forgiveness and gratitude make us happy. I really enjoyed his comments about gratefulness. I will apply that principle in practice more in my life after reading this book. I LOVED what he said about exercise - mainly because it resonates with my own life experience, "Researchers use frequency of exercise as a barometer for general well-being ecause it is an objective measure that links to subjective qualities; people who exercise three or more times per week tend to experience less stress or depression even when researchers factor out for health conditions that affect the ability to exercise." AND I loved the finding that older people are more forgiving. Interesting.

[Lagalog Ramos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave myself three chapters to find something that didn't make me go find my pen and write on the book but gave up. Did not continue reading. Even in 2003 when the book was published, it's pretty hard to imagine which planet Easterbrook was describing (a healthy middle class with two or more homes, a boat, etc.). I often feel he cites statistics for credibility but draws the most absurd conclusions from the numbers (more Americans can afford an SUV, modern tech devices, etc. but fails to note that most are not purchased with cash but with credit).

I actually fast-forwarded to the ending chapter to see whether I can come to terms with his conclusions. Nah. His point about money/material things not exactly a barometer of happiness is well and good. His preachy belaboring in arriving at that point is kind of ivory-tower-lost. He reminds me of Thomas Friedman in the sense that both can be oblivious to the real state of the world (rapidly diminishing resources including oil) and write things like they were on another planet or smoking/taking some hallucinogen.

Would give this a zero rating if that option was offered here.

[Adam Zerner · Rating 4 out of 5]

He takes the whole first half of the book to say that "things are much better than they used to be". He does a great job articulating it, which was nice, but ultimately it just took way too long.

In the second half of the book, he does two things: 1) talk about how we could be happier, and 2) talk about how the world should change. He makes good arguments and articulates them well. But ultimately, he doesn't say anything new, which made for a dull read. This theme (doing a good job articulating things we already know) about sums up the book.

Edit: Over a year later, I'm returning to edit my review. I've found that this book has in fact influenced my thinking. There's a difference between "knowing" and *knowing*. Just because I "knew" things before reading the book doesn't mean I really *knew* them. So even though a lot of the information in the book wasn't new to me, the fact that it was organized and presented well furthered my understanding of what I think is an extremely extremely important topic.

[Aaron Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. Objectively speaking, by almost any measure, if you live in the US or EU, you live better than your parents did. So how can it be that happiness has not increased, stress/depression, are more prevalent?

This is a good read for anyone, but I'd especially recommend it for anyone raising kids. There are a number of values, beliefs, and attitudes that are major detractors from feeling a true sense of happiness.

Easterbrook does a health and needed critique of our culture. He looks at the 3 institutions whose life and growth depend on the masses to buy in to a sense of unease, fear, concern, etc: the news media, the government, religion. No matter how good things may be, these institutions have a vested interest in making us believe that we need them in order to finally be happy.

My criticisms? He tries a little to hard in some areas and in others, he goes on too long, well after he's made the point. Still, a very compelling book.

[Steve Lin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked it up because I liked reading his Tuesday Morning Quarterback column on espn.com. I don't feel like he's as insightful as I thought he'd be, and he tends to gloss over serious issues while making his point, such as saying the general environmental trend is getting better not worse. He makes some valid points -- water and air quality are much better than in the past -- but then he brushes off carbon dioxide emissions and global warming as if they wer not big problems.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book that shows 1) how life in the modern world is, in material terms, much better than it ever has been in world history, and 2) how little that seems to translate into human happiness. Even if you end up not buying into some of Easterbrook's conclusions in the latter parts of the book, it is worth reading for the first half of the book alone -- it will reset your views on the state of the world today.

[Erin Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crime is down - incomes are up - so why is everybody on anti-depressants?

[Wesley Voit · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're feeling shitty about the human condition in the modern world, read this 'big picture'synopsis of how awesome everything really is. Seriously, everything is pretty good for us right now.

[Curtis Edmonds · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Note: This review was written in 2004. All football-related references are therefore dated except those that note that the Cowboys stink.)

Let’s face it, there are some serious – not to say dire – issues out there that have to be dealt with, and soon. The NFL Sunday Ticket package is only available to satellite dish customers, not for cable customers, so loyal out-of-market Cowboys fans in, say, Atlanta who live, say, in basement apartments can’t access the games they – well, me – want to see. What Atlanta transplants have been left with this year has been the Vick-less, hapless Falcons, which we have to watch here even if they’re down by four scores and even if there’s a torrid NFL match-up involving, well anyone else. And the TV broadcasts that are run don’t feature anywhere near enough cheer-babes, outside of the occasional brief glimpse before the beer commercials. If that weren’t enough, there are concerns for the game itself, or how it is mismanaged on a weekly basis. NFL offensive coordinators calling for running plays on second-and-infinity. NFL defensive coordinators blitzing with eight rushers while leaving rookie cornerbacks to cover Pro Bowl receivers one-on-one. NFL head coaches punting on fourth-and-three in the last stages of the fourth quarter when down by twelve. And, everywhere, the senseless taunting and flaunting of the football gods, who are not to be trifled with by mere mortals.

But let’s set that aside for a minute. The NFL is wonderful, a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It inspires, it teaches, it liberates. It tells us who we are (in that, this week, it tells us Cowboys fans that we’re out of the playoffs). It has grown and progressed so much even in my lifetime – gaining franchises, increasing in complexity, introducing us to generation after generation of noble warriors – that it is nothing short of a miracle, a national phenomenon wrought by the able hands of Pete Rozelle and Tex Schramm. (And let’s not forget addition by subtraction: Howard Cosell, Jimmy the Greek, Brent Musburger, etc.) The only appropriate response to the glory and the magic of pro football is Pattonesque: “Dear God, I love it so.”

But consider this. You have these people who get to live the dream – who don’t get to just watch pro football, but are privileged to play it or coach it or live it in other ways. And they’re unhappy! All the time they’re unhappy! Just look at the most recent examples, if you will. Steve Spurrier, tired of losing, phoning in his resignation from the clubhouse. Terrell Owens, blasting his entire career with the Frisco eleven over slights and complaints. Joe Horn, auditioning for a Verizon commercial during a game. If pro football can’t make you happy, if it can’t fill the vacant corners in your life, if it can’t lift you to prominence and wealth and everything else we’re supposed to want – well, then, what can?

This is the point of The Progress Paradox, by Brookings Institute polymath and NFL writer Gregg Easterbrook, whose splendid “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” column I have cribbed from liberally in the space above. Easterbrook sets forth the unassailable premise that everything now is better than it ever has been, except for those of us who fly a lot and don’t have the right shoes for it. The water is purer; the sky is bluer (or at least cleaner). There is enough food to go around, although too much of it is stuff like Cheez Doodles. The poor are always with us, but a lot of them in this country have cars and big-screen TVs and, well, Cheez Doodles – stuff that wasn’t available, or even easily imaginable, just a hundred short years ago. Things in general, Easterbrook tells us, have never been better for so many ordinary people at any other time in human history, not even when your grandfather was little and everything cost a nickel.

In fact, the first two chapters of The Progress Paradox are so chock-full of good news that it’s almost impossible to get through them in one sitting. To use a metaphor that might terrify the author, it’s like eating cotton candy with an appetizer, and a deep-fried Snickers bar for an entrée. Outside of the occasional snarky attack on the American addiction to sugar and fast food and the proliferation of sport-utility vehicles, there’s hardly a negative thing to say about the way that most ordinary people live in the Western democracies, especially as compared to how things used to be. Every horrible threat that has menaced human societies – poverty, New Coke, nuclear war, William Shatner’s singing career, famine, racism, polyester leisure suits, teenage pregnancy, crime, Dennis Kucinich for President, environmental collapse – is in full-bore retreat.

You might doubt Easterbrook’s thesis, of course, especially if you’ve stubbed your toe this morning, or just rented Gigli at your local Blockbuster, or if you’ve just watched hapless Cowboys quarterback Quincy Carter throw interceptions in the red zone. But individual circumstances, as miserable as they can be for individuals at individual moments, do little to blunt the positive impact of the current trendlines. Previous generations, Easterbrook reminds us, have not had it as good as we do, today and every day, despite what nostalgia and selective memory may tell us. (P.J. O’Rourke, writing in a similar vein, once pointed out that if you really think that anytime in the past was a Golden Age, consider what the dentistry was like back then.)

But the inevitable paradox still confounds us. If we’re so much better off nowadays, why aren’t there more happy people out there? Why is Prozac use so common that there are fears that the drug is getting into the water supply? Why is nuisance litigation becoming a more popular diversion than, say, pro hockey? Why is there always a Ford Excursion parked next to me when I want to pull out of a parking space?

Easterbrook posits that we aren’t evolutionarily ready for such happiness, that our reptile brains, conditioned by years of privation in the African highlands, aren’t set up to handle sudden abundance. So, the way we do everything else, we rationalize things, we figure out ways in which we are victims, we complain that others have still more than we do, we sink into denial. Not to mention that there are any number of people out there for whom the apocalypse is good business, and scare warnings are always in stock. And there’s a rational-expectation for disaster; Easterbrook argues that the media, so always ready to sensationalize a bad story, and so quick to bury a good story, leads us to expect only bad news and suffering in the press.

But in another sense, it doesn’t matter why we’re unhappy. It could be because of 24-hour news shows in general (and Bill O’Reilly in particular). It could be because of massive credit card debt. It could be because of Quincy Carter’s penchant for interceptions. What matters is, how do we fix things? How do we become happy?

The Progress Paradox has two sets of suggestions. The first set is personal and spiritual in nature and involves what Easterbrook calls “positive psychology”, for want of a better term. Part of this is almost Biblical, and involves forgiving those who trespass against us, and being grateful for our daily bread. Psychology books, Easterbrook tells us, have reams of data on neuroses and tragedy, but comparatively little on gratitude and forgiveness. Hard-core psychology focuses more on the minority with mental illnesses rather than the general malaise and unhappiness of the general populace; the latter is all-too frequently, nowadays, treated with Prozac and forgotten about. Thinking in a more positive way – Easterbrook references Norman Vincent Peale as an authority here – is one way to be happy amidst the abundance around us. (Easterbrook, er, unhappily, doesn’t cite Charles Murray’s excellent monograph, In Pursuit: In Search of Happiness and Good Government, which covers the topic of happiness much more comprehensively.)

The other set of suggestions is less personally helpful because it almost exclusively concentrates on what the American federal government can do to make the world a better place. This is where The Progress Paradox begins to lose its way. Easterbrook’s prescription for American political renewal is (to simplify things a bit) fourfold: providing universal health insurance for all Americans, raising the minimum wage, curbing the excesses of corporate robber barons, and increasing the foreign aid budget substantially. This may sound more like a liberal-centrist political platform than a prescription for curing our national blues, which is probably a fair criticism.

There isn’t quite enough space in the book review format to present the conservative case against Easterbrook’s agenda – certainly Easterbrook doesn’t present it, outside of a brief statement that some people argue that raising the minimum wage will raise unemployment. (To his credit, Easterbrook does defend some of the Bush Administration’s environmental record; he’s not a one-note liberal critic.) There’s nothing terribly controversial about his policy proposals, but it’s vaguely disappointing that a smart guy like Easterbrook isn’t coming up with anything better, more imaginative than this. It doesn’t help matters that he couches his political arguments in absolutist and moralistic ways; we’re taught, for example, that “[h]igher wages for the struggling, in return for a clear conscience for the successful, represents an attractive bargain: both a moral necessity and in the self-interest of anyone who is not coldhearted.”

Actually, considering that “coldhearted” bit, maybe it’s a good thing that Easterbrook isn’t presenting the conservative side of the argument here.

No matter. The Progress Paradox is excellent stuff, and if nothing else, it will help all of its readers practice a little bit of positive psychology; if this doesn’t help you count your blessings, very little will. And one of those blessings is that you get to read Gregg Easterbrook’s crisp, witty, level-headed prose. Another one is that, as of this writing, it’s only 45 short days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training camps in Florida and Arizona. (Well, life isn’t all about football, is it?)

[Cindy (BKind2Books) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a slog for me and I probably should have DNF'ed it. But I think I was perversely just seeing how far this author would go. Answer: Pretty far.

So part of the problem is likely that this book did not age well. It *was* written in 2003. So some of the issue with it is just that it's outdated. However....there were plenty of other problems:

➡ He gives plenty of opinions and, while some of them are footnoted and have at least some basis in fact, many are just that, opinion.
.... He states that "Today, for the majority, medical expenses are often annoying but rarely ruinous." So this is infuriating. Even in 2003, one of the major causes of personal bankruptcy was medical expenses.
... Another example. "Both groups {the rich and the average person} live in about the same way, drive on the same roads, visit the same hospitals, and...share the same elemental cultural experiences, namely television and the movies." Really? I might say that from today's perspective this is definitely not true and I really doubt that it was entirely accurate for 2003. Today, the rich can afford elite colleges (which also allow for connections and life-long contacts that assist in getting ahead); they drive on toll 'choice' roads to avoid the traffic congestion; their medical care is top-notch and they don't care if it's covered by insurance; and their cultural experiences are not on the same level - they afford private boxes at sporting events and VIP access to celebrities and travel to exotic locales.
... Even his footnotes are not exempt from his opinion. While talking about raising minimum wage, he notes that not everyone depends on that income and says 'teenagers flipping burgers after school are trying to earn money for clothes and cars, not to run a household.' He also suggests that the solution is a lower minimum wage for under 18. WTH, shouldn't teens make a decent wage whether they're earning money for a car or trying to pay for college?

➡ His tone in some of the sections is condescending and designed to subtly sway the reader. He speaks of the 'hysterical tone of environmental reporting' and 'heavy-breathing commentary' (on a former nerve gas manufacturing site). He talks of overconsumption of food and states that overeating 'may be indicative of excessive material focus in general.' He gives the same belittling tone to those on ADHD meds - 'people want to pop a pill rather than change lifestyles.' On a section about spirituality, he notes that there is 'no escaping that a significant percentage of groups that advocate it have California return addresses.' This is idiotic stereotyping and he comes off as an ass.

➡ Some of his comments are simply outdated. He talks about the falling suicide rate during the 90s. And yes, the rates did fall from about 13 deaths (per 100K people) to 10, but since then it's steadily risen to almost 15 - almost a 30% increase. He talks about the Forbes 400 list as almost two-thirds billionaires. Now, to make the Forbes 400, you need to be a MULTI-billionaire with a net worth of $3.8 BILLION.

➡ He spends much of the first part of the book telling us how much better we are than people 100 years (or more) ago. Yeah, I'm not fighting off diphtheria or scarlet fever and I'm not working 14 hour days, six days a week. I agree with the premise that we are better off than our ancestors. That doesn't discount the challenges involved in living today. Every age has challenges and many can't be anticipated. Who could foresee the rise of AI? I'm hopeful that 50 years from now - our descendants will look back on this time as the good old days. Either that or the beginning of the end of civilization.

➡ The second part of the book deals with some of the challenges that should be addressed. He did come to some conclusions which do seem applicable today. He sees 3 things as problems that need to be addressed. First is the lack of universal healthcare. The failure of the US to provide citizens and legal immigrants with adequate medical insurance "remains one of the scandals of our age." Second is the need for living wages for the poor and near-poor. He even points out that Christians should be less concerned with public school books and adults' sexual choices and more concerned with alleviating the suffering of the poor. The third problem is greed at the top. He talks about the exorbitant top executive pay as unrelated to the market value of their talent. "If everyone within the United States made a decent living and had decent health care, while no corporate leaders were engaged in glorified shoplifting, we could all enjoy our prosperity more."

So if you go into this, know that it is outdated and opinionated and research what's actually happening now.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book after reading Johan Norberg’s Progress, so this review is colored by the comparison. Progress is a fairly factual account of improvements being made in the world – a guardedly optimistic view of the world and the fate of the average person. It’s very insightful and eye-opening.

Easterbrook’s book is a bit more of a miscellany. It talks about improvements in the US, then how Americans still feel anxious despite the improvements, then it becomes kind of a self-help book, then a bit of a policy prescription for maintaining the improvements.

Let me look at these one at a time. The improvements in the US over the past 60-70 years has been amazing. Reduced illness, reduced poverty, longer life, greater wealth, reduced violence, etc. The transformation has been historical.

Yet many Americans don’t feel that their life’s improving. They think there’s more violence, more poverty, more corruption, etc. in the nation. That’s simply not the case. Easterbook explores the various reasons for this.

This section is a bit snarky. And after reading Progress, it all seems so unimportant in some ways. If American’s are unhappy even though they have Nextflix or whatever, so what? Happiness, whatever that is, is a personal journey each human must undertake on his or her own.

More important is helping people understand these trends, because incorrect understanding of the world creates incorrect policies. That’s why I thought Norberg’s book was so much more powerful.

Easterbrook then provides some tips on helping people feel happier – positive psychology, gratitude, mindfulness. These continue to be highly popular concepts in books and even commercials. I’m a bit more skeptical about whether happiness is achieved or an accident of birth. But that’s another discussion.

Then The Progress Paradox veers into policy prescriptions for maintaining the progress we’ve achieved in the US and around the world. It’s all very good stuff – very appealing to someone of a left-center persuasion: higher taxes on the rich, raising the minimum wage, combatting climate change, more foreign aid, etc. All things that I generally agree with.

So this book covers a lot. Is it a self-help book? A feel-good book about the future? A dark warning? I don’t know. There are some very good ideas and observations in this book – enough that I’ll keep the book on my shelf for future reference. However, I feel that each section lacks depth. If you want a book about happiness, buy one. If you want a book about world trends, buy one, etc.

There’s also a shallow snarkiness in some sections that I found grating. I think he was trying to provide some voice or color, but it didn’t feel right to me. Particularly after reading Norberg’s book about people around the world struggling for food. Then Americans being sad even though they have a DVD didn’t feel all that important.

Overall, a book with an important message (or messages). I think, though, it tries to take on too much at once and thus has a cursory feel.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book laid out a convincing case for the improvement of humanity over the past hundred plus years and then notes that despite that, people are less happy than ever. Why is this? Easterbrook argues that its a combination of jealousy, media’s and elites bias for negativity, the tyranny of the small picture, and our natural tendency to complain. He suggests finding meaning in God or in ethics, forgiving those who hurt us, and essentially counting our blessings. He then concludes with a policy wish list, which honestly didn’t flow well with the thesis of the book, where he argues for universal healthcare, living wages, increased international aid, and better relations with the Muslim world.

I’m not surprised that this book gets a decent number of 1 star reviews. The data that easterbrook cites is very convincing (go to Our World in Data if you want to see more) but too many people today feel their struggles are so much worse than anyone ever experienced, that they can’t realize how good we have it.

[Malin Friess · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you charted trends in America with a pencil the line would be pointed up. Income, size of the home, phone calls made, number of cars owned, IQ scores, number of vacations taken per year, decrease in crime, lower pollution levels, personal freedom, reduction of bias against minorities, women's rights, health care, highest degree earned: every indicator of social welfare has trended up; but the trend line for happiness has remained flat for two generations. This is the "progress paradox."

If all these positive changes can not make us happy, what can? Easterbrook argues that we need to emphasize three things: optimism, gratitude, and act of forgiveness.

The book is packed with interesting social statistics. It is dated (2003) so I'll be waiting to see how contemporary issues like political divisiveness, COVID pandemic, and racial injustice affect his thinking. 5 stars. I find Easterbrook's writing fascinating.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some of the arguments feel a bit dated (it was written in 2004), the author convinced me of his premise that life is objectively better for the average person in the current generation than it has been for the average person in any previous generation. Health care, women's rights, violent crime, pollution, average lifespans & worldwide income have all been trending in a positive direction for decades, if not centuries. The one exception he gives is green house gasses.

It doesn't mean there isn't still work to do, but we should celebrate how far we have come. We should also measure what we have against what we NEED, not just against the ever moving goalposts of what we WANT.

The author very sagely says that material wealth and health etc are worthwhile goals but do not necessarily bring happiness, as evidenced by ever higher rates of clinical depression. He suggests that our discontent may be built into the human psyche, may be a result of forgetting about the problems that have been solved, may be a result of anxiety about collapse of the system we live in, may be the feeling that nothing better is in store for us.

We will have to find happiness and meaning on our own. For all its good, material wealth can't ensure happiness.

5 stars for the uplifting premise, 3 for getting tedious by the end, so 4 on average.

[Stan Diddams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was talking to an American man who was temporarily living in Madrid when Franco died. He said his landlady, a lifelong Spaniard, was in tears over his death. Why would she be sad? He was a fascist, and did many terrible things. The reason was that she thought Spain was a paradise. There was no crime, no disasters, everything was nice and orderly. But it only seemed that way because Franco censored the news!

What we have today is the opposite. The news, our emails, social media, etc., are filled with exaggerated bad news. This book counters that tendency in our society. It gives many factual examples why we should be skeptical of those trying to instill fear and skeptical of their motives.

An excellent contribution, and as true today as when it was written, if not more.

[Emily Mellow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really don't like this book for some reason. I want to, I like the idea of it. So nice to think that the media and popular culture have it all wrong, and life is really better now for virtually everyone. I mean, he for sure has a point when in comes to coal smoke in the air, but what about global warming?
Part of the problem is that it's from 2003, so none of the information is really valid anymore. A lot has changed in 20 years. Another problem is the tone. He says in the book that numbers can be tortured into saying anything you want them to say, and inadvertently set me up to distrust all of his conclusions.

[David Bradshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

US CEOs Made 254 Times More Than Median Workers in 2021

'Don't Quit' John Greenleaf Whittier
Things fall apart, the center cannot hold;
Mire anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Betrayal of trust: the collapse of global public health Laurie Garrett new York; dimensions, 2000
The moral animal: evolutionarily psychology and every day life hi Robert Wright, vintage books, 1994

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

By nearly every measure—income, longevity, education—we, lucky to live in developed nations, are better off than our grandparents or parents. Yet happiness is at an all time low. Easterbrook attempts to understand why, using tools from cultural criticism to psychology and history to studies of well being. He stumbles here and there, on dated facts, but delightfully skewers every political persuasion. Recommended.

[Ted Hennessy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has a great perspective on this problem: most of the world's population sees improving trends in almost every aspect, but many of us perceive that life is getting worse. He tries to explain why that happens.
This is a great companion to Easterbrook's other book, It's Better Than It Looks. Here, he clearly outlines the improving trends across various human measures: war, health, poverty, hunger, .....

[Amir Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback (TMQ) column on ESPN and read it religiously. It was polymathic and funny. This book is just polymathic. It also hasn't aged very well either (I read it a while ago, it's been a long time since I've logged onto this website to update my bookshelf).

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of it really didn't age well. I would be curious to hear the author's thoughts on progress now.

That said it gave some thought to why negativity tends to rule the airwaves. This has only been exacerbated with the rise of the internet, social media, and 24 hour news channels.

In the aggregate things are getting better... But they could be SO MUCH BETTER.

[Patrick Trepanier · Rating 5 out of 5]

very interesting book that largely posits that more money, greater prosperity and free time don't necessarily mean your life is better or you'll be happier.

Happiness doesn't come from more and more stuff. Happiness comes from more and more gratitude, forgiveness, love and service. The material stuff is all ephemeral.

[Vincent Broman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good indictment of Western progress and insatiability, with some good points about the positive psychology movement, but the political prescriptions that don't really flow from the opening premises were a mixed bag.

[Matthew Becker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise was fantastic. However, about halfway through, he found a few semi random soapboxes to stand on too long and didn't connect back to the main thesis well. Would have been better to stop at 200 vs 300 pages.

[Seth Callahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dated now but the core message that gratitude and patience are still nobel traits is always refreshing, and it's really interesting to think about what the 2024 version of this book would say