Stress interrupts American dream

Aint that the truth. From the Houston Chronicle:

By practically every objective measure, American life has been getting better for decades.

Standards of living keep rising, with the typical house now more than twice as large as a generation ago; middle-class income keeps rising, although more slowly than income at the very top; more Americans graduate from college every year; longevity keeps rising; almost all forms of disease, including most cancers, are in decline; crime has dropped spectacularly; pollution, except for greenhouse gases, are in long-term decline; discrimination is down substantially. Yet despite all these positive indicators, the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as "happy" has not increased since the early 1950s, while incidence of depression keeps rising -- and was doing so long before the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

This is the progress paradox: Life gets better while people feel worse.

Click here for the rest.

Good essay. I would add to it that people are also stressed about work (either finding a job or losing the job one already has) and health care. At least that's what stresses me.

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