The real take-away from this analysis is that increasing material wealth doesn't make us happier. This is kind of a problem because the entire orientation of American policy for the last century has been: more material wealth -> greater quality of life.
Thomas F. Varley
Here’s the problem with saying things like “1998 was the best year”: the economy has grown over time.
This sounds like a pointless truism but it’s not. Wealth has all-but-monotonically increased for decades in the US. We don’t notice because of hedonic creep. But we’d certainly notice going back.
