Seven years ago, researcher Barry Schwartz observed that “Assessments of well-being by various social scientists, among them David Myers of Hope College and Robert Lane of Yale University, reveal that increased choice and increased affluence have, in fact, been accompanied by decreased well-being in the U.S. and most other affluent societies. It seems that as a society, at least in recent years, grows wealthier and people become freer to do whatever they want, they get less happy.”