The United States seems unusual among wealthy and middle-income countries. It has had consistently high economic growth for the past three decades (the 2008 global financial crisis excepted), yet consistent declines in well-being: in life satisfaction, hope, trust in others, and self-reported health.
This pattern runs counter to a core tenet of neoclassical economics: that higher income allows people to achieve higher levels of utility. Research has generally reinforced this, at least in cross-sectional analyses. Easterlin (1974) was among the first to show that this relationship breaks down (i.e., is not statistically significant) when comparing changes in income with changes in well-being, giving rise to the well-known “Easterlin Paradox.”