> We spend today 50-100 times more energy per person that people 100 years ago, and most of those people were happy.
100 years ago was 1920. That is two years after WWI. That is destroyed countries moving from crisis to crisis, veterans struggling to become part of society ...
1930 - great depression - pretty bad. It also made all race problems worst quickly. 3 years before nazi gets power - Germany solidly on the path there. 6 years before stalin purge in Russia - solidly hellos country at that point.
So I guess it depends which part of world you talk about, tho none of it sounds perfect.
