How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse:

I am occasionally so cavalier as to recommend a book before reaching the last page, but to recommend a book to thousands before a full reading seems downright reckless. I will say, therefore, that I recommend Gregg Easterbrook’s “The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse” to page 155 (of 317, excluding notes).

Having read his other books, I do not expect to be disappointed. In fact, if all goes well I will offer the book at my expense to the first five Brown University students who contact me. While reading the first three chapters, I repeatedly wished I had been able to rattle off the statistics Easterbrook cites when I was in college.

Easterbrook is a bit statist for my taste, but this might make the book more palatable to the students, who will be shocked to learn that American’s lives are better than ever before, on the equality and environmental fronts, among others. (They would be less surprised to learn in Chapter 3 that the media present a distorted picture of these positive developments.)

Side note: Easterbrook makes a distinction between capitalism and market economies that might catch on:

“A reason Western economies keep performing better may be that capitalism has been supplanted by market economies. Capitalism, as a system, served only those possessing capital; for the typical person, all benefits were trickle-down. Market economics, on the other hand, mainly serves the typical person, as the free exchange of goods and information endlessly pressures corporations to reduce prices and improve quality.”

I am more inclined to say that what we have now is capitalism in a post-industrial society, which is better for the average person than capitalism during the industrial transition. Still, given the negative connotations of “capitalism” for many, the switch could serve a function.

UPDATE: Two Brown students have contacted me already, although one is a recent graduate and one is taking time off to start a business. Perhaps current students are too busy reading their assignments to read The Conspiracy? (my laughter is pealing down the hall)