Business of Life

Life Gets Better

Overall, Life is definitely getting better.

Households earning > $75,000:
1890: 1 %; 2000: 23 %

Hours of work needed to buy McDonalds cheeseburger:
1956: 1/2 hour; 2000: 3 minutes

Home ownership:
1900: 20 %; 2000: 70 %

Hours of work needed to buy each 100 square feet of housing:
1956: 16 hours; 2000: 14 hours

Rooms per person:
Europe: ~1; United States: 2.1

Dwellings with central heat:
1930: 15 %; 2002: 78 %

High school graduates:
1940: <50 %; 2000: >80 %

Food spending in restaurants:
1955: 25 %; 2000: 46 %

"White collar" employment:
1900: 21 % men, 20 % women; 2000: 58 % men, 52 % women

Workweek (men only):
1850: 66 hours; 1900: 53 hours; 2000: 42 hours

Women spending 4+ hours/day at housework:
1900: 90 %; 2000: 14 %

Weekly leisure time (men only):
1880: 11 hours; 2000: 40 hours

Waking hours spent working over lifetime:
1850: 50 %; 2000: 20 %

Life expectancy difference between upper and lower class Briton:
1870: 17 years; 2000: 2 years

HT to Carl Frank who took statistics from Gregg Easterbrook's The Progress Paradox who asks if life is getting better why are people feeling worse.