Are we happier than our forefathers?

It is a difficult to answer this question. The meaning of the world "happiness"

differs from person to person.

No doubt we produce and consume at present plenty of goods, which our

forefathers may not even have dream of. We have speedier means of transport
and communication, a wide variety of entertainment media, improved systems
of public health and hygiene, better medical facilities, better amenities and
greater social stability and security. Modern man enjoys comforts, luxuries and
pleasures that even the kings and emperors of the past would have envied.

But to offset all these, we have some disadvantages like slums, pollution, riots
and conflicts. Many people are still living in poverty.

City life today is full of noise and congestion, hustle and bustle, hurry and worry.
Life is full of stress and tension. There is pleasure but no contentment. We do
not have peace of mind.

On the other hand our forefathers lived a simple life. They had fewer wants,
which they satisfied by working hard. They were strong, sturdy and healthy who
fully enjoyed simple things of life. They lived a contented and peaceful life.

If we think that happiness consists of material comforts, no doubt we are

happier than our forefathers. If pleasure can be called happiness we are indeed
happier. But if contentment is happiness, our forefathers should be considered
far happier than we are.

If you are talking about the U.S. founding fathers then I think we are not happier
because even though we have more material possessions and choices on how
to live that cause us to say we are happy with what we have and how we are
living, we treat each other very poorly as a society compared to our founding
fathers. This has material possessions give us a false sense of security which,
has us feel happy but in truth, true happiness lays in having good families and a
healthy society as we gain more luxuries not the other way around. So, I think
our fore fathers were happier because they relied on virtue and we today rely
on materialism