How a close look at the American Dream turned a top happiness expert into a specialist in despair: ‘It’s harder to be poor in a very rich country’
Brookings’ Carol Graham has spent decades measuring outcomes. Here's how her study of happiness led to work on despair — and what hope has to do with it.
Carol Graham, a leading happiness expert, has witnessed a shift in her work from measuring happiness to exploring despair. Her latest paper, co-authored with Douglas Harris, Anjana Nair, and Isabel Shaheen O'Malley, reveals that the United States lags behind other developed nations in converting income growth into well-being. Trust in government, courts, and personal freedom have all fallen sharply in the U.S. over the past two decades, resulting in a "paradox of unhappy growth."
Graham attributes this phenomenon to the American Dream narrative, which stigmatizes poverty and places undue pressure on individuals to succeed independently. In contrast, poor people in Latin America tend to be more hopeful, possibly because they are less stigmatized by their socioeconomic status. Graham's research suggests that the American Dream's emphasis on individual achievement and self-reliance may contribute to feelings of despair, as it leaves individuals feeling responsible for their own misfortunes and lacking a strong social support system.
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