Comment by Boothroid

I can't lay my hands on the source just now, but I've read the polar opposite to what you say - measures such as GDP show ongoing progress, whereas measures of happiness looking back hundreds of years (as I say, I cannot lay my hands on the source so cannot attest to the methodology) show that if anything we were happier a few hundred years ago, pre-industrial revolution: less complexity, greater sense of community, stronger familial bonds etc. etc.