Happiness
With all of his economic prosperity begs the questions, are we any happier? For one, the world isn't more violent. The only reason it may seem as though there's more conflict is because information is instantaneous today. The news bestows images of death upon us almost constantly, when in actuality less people are dying in wars. Not only are less people involved in conflict, but doctors are better at treating war-related injuries. Concerning modern materialism, all resources are more abundant than they were ten and even forty years ago. Even more amazing: they're cheaper! For all the people obsessing about human consumption of natural resources, it's been proven that social prosperity is good for the environment. This is because nature isn't simply food anymore.
Even with all of the technology, convenience, and health, people aren't necessarily happier. Measuring joy is entirely qualitative, which is perhaps why it's so difficult to gauge.
Easterlin Paradox: He conducted a study in America, and determined that people with higher incomes were happier than poorer people. When he expanded his data collection internationally, however, there was absolutely no correlation between glee and wealth.
Maybe it's not the tangible items that cause happiness, but rather social and political liberation. Freedom for personal beliefs generally insinuates contentment amongst the people.
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Commercial Revolution (IR)
Almost all of human history is plagued by misery, death, conflict, and disease. Because we're much more spoiled now, minor hiccups in economic progress are overemphasized. During the Great Depression, income levels fell to those seen before WWI, while the modern Great Recession caused salaries to fall to numbers around the *terrible* time of the Summer of 2007.
We can think of the Commercial Revolution as a transition from stagnation to growth. Economic success can also be religious liberty, women's rights, and political freedom.
Classical Theory of Production: we "use up" our increased productivity with population growth.
Modern Theory of Production: improvements in technology, knowledge, and capital allow productivity to outpace an increase in the earth's people.
Population studies have actually shown that fertility falls as income rises. This could possibly be because parents are looking for child quality over offspring quantity. Another idea draws from the role of property. Wealthier people have incentives to spread their money amongst their children, while poorer people have nothing to give. Another child isn't seen as competition because each kid has nothing regardless.
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