IN THE past few decades, the ‘standard of living’ for most people in the affluent West has greatly increased. We have more stuff: more televisions; more designer trainers; more personal computers; more mobile phones; and, yes, more cameras.
The precise figures don’t matter, and are probably not measurable. Are we talking about 30 years, or 40 or 50? Has the standard of living doubled, or tripled? Does it matter? You’d need to be even more ‘Bah! Humbug!’ than I am if you want to deny the material improvement.
Sticking with things that are unmeasurable, but still the subject of general agreement, people are, however, no happier now than they were 20, or 30, or 40 years ago. To be sure, you can’t measure happiness. Indeed, any attempt to do so…