No traffic on the 101 Northbound in the afternoon. Got back with plenty of time to spare. Odd.

Finished Progress Paradox. Easterbrook puts forward many points that life is getting better for pretty much everyone in the Western world, and that people have negative attitudes for various reasons that he also points out. One of the paths that the book takes is that people feel better when acting in a virtuous or selfless manner, and that this type of behavior is lost on modern society. The back half of the book, then, devolves into exploring what else is wrong in the world, most notably the existence of poverty in a country as affluent as America. The book, which is a quick read, and I give a lot of credit to Easterbrook's style, becomes more of a self-help guide that says, "There's lots of reasons to be happy, yet here's a lot of reasons why you may not feel that way. If you're unhappy, be more altruistic for such and such cause, and you'll find that forgiveness improves your outlook on life as well as directly benefitting those you help."

A couple of interesting points are brought up or referenced by the book, though.

• Blacks, if you consider them to be an immigrant that arrived during the Civil Rights revolution of the 60's, are on pace with the economic growth of other immigrant groups.
• The dropping crime rate can be linked to legalized abortion.
• Therapy and counseling is almost always better than approaching psychoanalytical problems with pills, as they have no side effects, and continue to help even after sessions terminate, whereas pill side-effects are rampant, and benefits cease after you stop taking them
• Modern human's propensity for stress could have been a necessary biological trait that allowed for evolutionary survival. Mellowed-out early humans probably got eaten by lions.
  

I don't have a problem with the raising of the prices of consumer goods on a private level in order to have better living wages, but mainly because I don't think it's the federal government's place to execute sin or virtue taxes. If a state or local authority wants to impose it, though, then that's fine. If New Balance started charging more for their wares to ensure living wage conditions for all its workers, you know that I'd buy their 608 cross trainers with increased vigor.