Happiness wasn't invented in the last decade of the 20th century... or at any arbitrary point in the development of civilization. Pretty much any time things a

Happiness wasn't invented in the last decade of the 20th century... or at any arbitrary point in the development of civilization. Pretty much any time things aren't just horrible and desperate, people are more than capable of being happy. People are very adaptable in that regard. The other thing we tend to do as human beings is tell ourselves that people who are better off can't be (that much) happier. Or people who are better off convincing themselves that because their lives aren't perfect that all circumstances are essentially the same as far as happiness goes and that people with less or who are living closer to the edge are actually happier than they are. There's a wide range of circumstances people can live with and still find happiness. Very few of us have a hard requirement of being on the very top rung of the ladder to be happy. And there's no particular rung on the ladder where happiness becomes possible.