How Life Gets Better While People Feel the Same

Im pretty sure all of us atomic number 18 familiar with the cliche, m integrityy preemptt buy satisfaction. In Gregg Easterbrook agree The Progress problem he tries to understand why a small variances of this cliche is so. The paradox that underlies Easterbrooks venture is that through extinct the last fifty years, things go improved in the United States and Europe, by all fair game standards. All though during same time, surveys of happiness and satisfaction have not changed since the fifties.Easterbrooks main heading through start the book asking has the objective measures of the well being of man variety return increased while overall satisfaction of lot and happiness have remained n invariably-ending? In the three beginning chapters of this book Easterbrook sp peculiaritys a plentitude of time looking at surveys depicting the various objective measures that show a pretty much steady increase of progress. I fix these chapters entertaining to read because it brin gs to light a huge range of facts and statistics that conduce support to his idea that things are constantly smash.Easterbrook goes on about how the offense rate is falling, the state of the environment is improving, we are gaining intelligence, equality is increasing and scotch situations have improved. Crime, both violent and property have been in correct for 20 years. Current crime rates are probably the final in the history of the country. The environment has been improving in every field of force except green house gases. We have the cleanest air since the beginning of the industrial revolution and the cleanest water since Man was a hunter and ga at that placer. n the statistics discussed, Easterbrook references a 1996 poll that resulted in 52% of the respondents saying the United States was worse today than when their parents were growing up and 60% said they expected their children to live in an even worse country. Only 15% of the respondents believed that overall nat ional conditions were improving (Easterbrook, 2004). In 1997, 66% of Americans reported that they believed the lot of the average soul is get worse (Easterbrook, 2004). Easterbrook raises the question How is this possible with the dramatic increase in overall general progress.Along with discussing the statistics of the many surveys, Easterbrook in like manner gives the reader possible reasons for the so-called paradox. oneness of the possible reasons he gives is choice anxiety. When looking back on the departed a lot of pack had very few options due to contain income and limited availability of goods and service. But Easterbrook fights that there is flip side to the variant that comes from having to many options, just like not having enough options can be stressful as well.With the constant increase in the range of goods and services available even the easiest choices can become stressful. Easterbrook states this because a consumer can neer really be sure if they are makin g the correct closing causing stress and unhappiness. An separate possible reason Easterbrook gives is Abundance denial. This convey that no matter how much individuals actually have materially, they ordain neer view them as being well-off, which is constantly making peck unhappy and stress out. Easterbrook states that a most Americans think of only the voluminous as being well-off. This brings me to my favorite statistic my favorite statistic there have been about sixty billion people who ever lived, the 600 million who live in western democracies such as Europe, North America, Japan and Australia live intermit than anyone else in history ( conk out housing, medical care, nutrition etc. )(Easterbrook, 2004). Since my standard of documentation is considered about average that means that I live better than 99. 5% of people who have ever lived. We are the one percenters, as furthest as the history of the world goes. Our current one percenters live better than 99. 9% of peop le, ever. One more possible reason is collapse anxiety, the general fear that the prosperity of the United States and Europe may come to an end due to an economic crash, environmental problems, terrorism or some other catastrophe. Even though individuals are better off that constant theory that it is unmanageable leads to people being unhappy and unsatisfied. Its catchy for people to sit back and really appreciate things when they are in constant fear that it could someday end. Lastly he considers the revolution of satisfied expectations as a possible explanation.He refers this to as the uneasiness that follows items that an individual once dream of having. Easterbrook states that during the last century western life has been categorized by ever increasing expectations, with each generation expecting to have more than the previous generation. In todays day and age we have reached a imply where people have most of what they need. What Easterbrook is trying to say with this explan ation is that it is hard to imagine things getting any better than they already are manakin of giving individuals nothing to look forward to.After reading this book I had some general issues. First off is the issue of happiness. The beginning of the book deals with objective measures over time that forms a steady increase in progress. To form the paradox the objective facts were compared to the subjective measures of happiness. Of course Easterbrook states that the surveys are not exactly perfect he claims that they illuminating nonetheless (Easterbrook, 2004). However I think this is questionable. The perception of happiness is not constant among individuals at one point in time, let alone over several decades.Each person could have a completely different outlook on happiness. What can be happiness for one person could be sadness or another feeling for someone else. With each person entitled to their deliver subjective view on what they consider to be happiness, they are also ent itled to have a subjective perception of what others experienced in the outgoing and what others will experience in the future. So when surveyors asked respondents if they thought their parents would better off or if their children will be better off, its not an objective measure but a subjective perception of the prehistorical and future.It doesnt attend wee why we In short, it is not clear why we would assume the level of subjective satisfaction to increase with objective well-being. I feel like Easterbrook was trying to say that in the past it seemed like things were always getting better but now in the future since things are improving so quickly it doesnt seem like we could continue to progress in the future. It is unclear why people should think that progress couldnt continue and, therefore, have lower expectations for the future. This question is left unanswered.If you asked, most people would agree that money and material things are not the meaning of happiness. With thi s, why would we expect to see a contact between an increase in progress and an increase in happiness? It isnt clear that the claim has ever been that prosperity and progress will lead to the end of all stress and uneasiness. In the end there are two traits that correlate closely with happiness forgiveness and gratitude. liberate those that have done you wrong and be grateful for what you have. Easterbrook, Greg. The Progress Paradox How Life Gets Better While People Feels Worse. Random House make Group, 2004. eBook.