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7. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the typical person spent 50 percent of his or her
waking hours over the course of a lifetime engaged in some form of imposed labor. Today,
due to shorter work weeks and greater life expectancy, the percentage is less than 20
percent.
8. The world’s “proven reserve” of petroleum was larger in 2000 than it was in the 1970s.
9. Between 1970 and 2000, smog declined by a third, even though vehicle-miles traveled
increased by 143 percent. Acid rain declined by 67 percent.
10. Despite the 143 percent increase in vehicle-miles traveled, annual auto crash deaths
decreased almost 20 percent between 1970 and 2000. (Annual auto crash deaths decreased
by another 20 percent between 2000 and 2012.)
11. In 2000, death by heart disease was 60 percent lower, adjusted for population, than in 1950.
Stroke deaths were down 70 percent.
12. Since the early years of the twentieth century, overall IQ scores have risen by about 20
percent.
Despite these and many other examples of progress, opinion polls show that many Americans
feel that the country is going downhill. The percentage of Americans who describe themselves as
“happy” has not increased since the 1950s. Easterbrook proposes a number of possible
explanations for the paradoxical relationship between the objective progress and the average
person’s generally negative perception, including:
1. An active preference for bad news.
a. Political activists achieve more fund-raising success by emphasizing (and often
exaggerating) problems than by pointing out past improvements.
Example 7: Candidates for public office in 2008 spoke often about the need to fix the “broken”
U.S. economy. This despite the fact that the U.S. economy in 2008 was the largest in the world
and was generating a standard of living (per capita Real GDP) almost 70% higher than in 1980.
b. To the news media, “bad” news is news and “good” news is not news. Viewers are more
likely to “stay tuned” if the upcoming story is about the “latest crisis” rather than about the
latest improvement.
c. The elite have a preference for bad news. A sense of crisis increases the power and
influence of the elite. And the elite see a person with a cynical attitude toward the future as
“sophisticated”, while a person with a positive attitude is seen as a “Pollyanna”.
2. The inability of money to buy happiness. Research indicates that a lack of material necessities
causes unhappiness. But once a basic level of material well-being has been attained,
additional income does not increase happiness.
3. Abundance denial. People strive for higher living standards, anticipating greater happiness.
When their higher living standards do not yield greater happiness, they conclude that they
have not actually achieved higher living standards. If they had achieved higher living
standards, they would be happier. Since they are not happier, they conclude that they must
not have achieved higher living standards.
4. Collapse anxiety. People fear that the current living standards cannot be sustained. Collapse
anxiety is triggered by such fears as exhaustion of natural resources, environmental calamity,
and political upheaval.
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A Brief History of U.S. Economic Growth Intro - 4