Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

8. Productivity and shorter hours: Roser 2016t. Fewer poorer seniors: Deaton 2013, p. 180. Note that the absolute percentage of people in poverty depends on how “poverty” is defined; compare, for example, figure 9-6.

9. Data on paid vacations in America summarized in Housel 2013, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

10. Data for the UK; calculation by Jesse Ausubel, graphed at http://www.humanprogress.org/static/3261.

11. Trends in working hours in selected developing countries: Roser 2016t.

12. Declining time needed to purchase appliances: M. Tupy, “Cost of Living and Wage Stagnation in the United States, 1979–2015,” HumanProgress, https://www.cato.org/projects/humanprogress/cost-of-living; Greenwood, Seshadri, & Yorukoglu 2005.

13. Least-preferred pastime: Kahneman et al. 2004. Time spent on housework: Greenwood, Seshadri, & Yorukoglu 2005; Roser 2016t.

14. “Time Spent on Laundry,” HumanProgress, http://humanprogress.org/static/3264, based on S. Skwire, “How Capitalism Has Killed Laundry Day,” CapX, April 11, 2016, http://capx.co/external/capitalism-has-helped-liberate-the-housewife/, and data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

15. Not to be missed: H. Rosling, “The Magic Washing Machine,” TED talk, Dec. 2010, https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_and_the_magic_washing_machine.

16. Good Housekeeping, vol. 55, no. 4, Oct. 1912, p. 436, quoted in Greenwood, Seshadri, & Yorukoglu 2005.

17. From The Wealth of Nations.

18. Falling price of light: Nordhaus 1996.

19. Kelly 2016, p. 189.

20. “Yuppie kvetching”: Daniel Hamermesh and Jungmin Lee, quoted in E. Kolbert, “No Time,” New Yorker, May 26, 2014. Trends in leisure, 1965–2003: Aguiar & Hurst 2007. Leisure hours in 2015: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2016c. See the caption to figure 17-6 for more details.

21. More leisure for Norwegians: Aguiar & Hurst 2007, p. 1001, note 24. More leisure for Britons: Ausubel & Grübler 1995.

22. Always rushed? Robinson 2013; J. Robinson, “Happiness Means Being Just Rushed Enough,” Scientific American, Feb. 19, 2013.

23. Family dinners in 1969 and 1999: K. Bowman, “The Family Dinner Is Alive and Well,” New York Times, Aug. 29, 1999. Family dinners in 2014: J. Hook, “WSJ/NBC Poll Suggests Social Media Aren’t Replacing Direct Interactions,” Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2014. Gallup poll: L. Saad, “Most U.S. Families Still Routinely Dine Together at Home,” Gallup, Dec. 23, 2013, http://www.gallup.com/poll/166628/families-routinely-dine-together-home.aspx?g_source=family%20and%20dinner&g_medium=search&g_campaign=tiles. Fischer 2011 comes to a similar conclusion.

24. Parents spend more time with their children: Sayer, Bianchi, & Robinson 2004; see also notes 25–27 below.

25. Parents and children: Caplow, Hicks, & Wattenberg 2001, pp. 88–89.

26. Mothers and children: Coontz 1992/2016, p. 24.

27. Increased child care, decreased leisure: Aguiar & Hurst 2007, pp. 980–82.

28. Electronic versus face-to-face contact: Susan Pinker 2014.

29. Pork and starch: N. Irwin, “What Was the Greatest Era for Innovation? A Brief Guided Tour,” New York Times, May 13, 2016. See also D. Thompson, “America in 1915: Long Hours, Crowded Houses, Death by Trolley,” The Atlantic, Feb. 11, 2016.

30. Grocery items, 1920s–1980s: N. Irwin, “What Was the Greatest Era for Innovation? A Brief Guided Tour,” New York Times, May 13, 2016. Items in 2015: Food Marketing Institute 2017.

31. Loneliness and boredom: Bettmann 1974, pp. 62–63.

32. Newspapers and saloons: N. Irwin, “What Was the Greatest Era for Innovation? A Brief Guided Tour,” New York Times, May 13, 2016.

33. Accuracy of Wikipedia: Giles 2005; Greenstein & Zhu 2014; Kräenbring et al. 2014.

CHAPTER 18: HAPPINESS

1. Transcribed and lightly edited from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8LaT5Iiwo4 and other Internet clips.

2. Mueller 1999, p. 14.

3. Easterlin 1973.

4. Hedonic treadmill: Brickman & Campbell 1971.

5. Social comparison theory: See chapter 9, note 11; Kelley & Evans 2016.

6. G. Monbiot, “Neoliberalism Is Creating Loneliness. That’s What’s Wrenching Society Apart,” The Guardian, Oct. 12, 2016.

7. Axial Age and origin of deepest questions: Goldstein 2013. Philosophy and history of happiness: Haidt 2006; Haybron 2013; McMahon 2006. Science of happiness: Gilbert 2006; Haidt 2006; Helliwell, Layard, & Sachs 2016; Layard 2005; Roser 2017.

8. Human capabilities: Nussbaum 2000, 2008; Sen 1987, 1999.

9. Choosing what doesn’t make you happy: Gilbert 2006.

10. Freedom makes people happy: Helliwell, Layard, & Sachs 2016; Inglehart et al. 2008.

11. Freedom makes life meaningful: Baumeister, Vohs, et al. 2013.

12. Validity of happiness reports: Gilbert 2006; Helliwell, Layard, & Sachs 2016; Layard 2005.