# The happiness expert who now studies despair

> Carol Graham's research on the American Dream reveals why rapid growth leaves people behind, even as the economy grows.
- Title: The happiness expert who now studies despair · Fortune
- Summary: Carol Graham's research on the American Dream reveals why rapid growth leaves people behind, even as the economy grows. Economist Carol Graham finds the U.S…
- Keywords: carol graham, brookings institution, happiness research, american dream, inequality, wellbeing, despair, labor force, gallup, economic growth, happiness, expert
- Source: Fortune — https://fortune.com/2026/10/24/american-dream-happiness-despair-hope-carol-graham-brookings-maryland
- Author: Nick Lichtenberg
- Read time: 3 min
- Topics: carol graham, brookings institution, happiness research, american dream, inequality, wellbeing, despair, labor force, gallup, economic growth
## From happiness to despair
Carol Graham, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and professor at the University of Maryland, spent her career measuring happiness. Now her research focuses on despair instead.

> I used to work on happiness and I seem to work more on despair now
## Graham's shifting focus
Her book titles track the shift: Happiness Around the World in two thousand nine, Happiness for All in twenty seventeen, and The Power of Hope in twenty twenty-three.
## A paper on American decline
Graham and co-authors Douglas Harris, Anjana Nair and Isabel Shaheen O'Malley used Gallup data from forty-four middle and high-income countries between two thousand six and twenty twenty-four.
## Trust in America collapsed
In the U.S. over that period, trust in government fell thirty-one percentage points, trust in the courts fell twenty-four, and the share of Americans who feel free to choose how to live fell nineteen.
## The paradox of unhappy growth
The U.S. converts income growth into wellbeing less efficiently than the average country. The authors call it the most extreme case of the paradox of unhappy growth.
## Poverty feels different here
Graham, born in Peru, observed that poor people in Latin America are much more hopeful than poor people in the U.S.

> it's harder to be poor in a very rich country where you're sort of stigmatized
## China's paradox of progress
In research with Shaojie Zhou and Junyi Zhang published in World Development in twenty seventeen, Graham found life satisfaction dropped precipitously during China's rapid growth, even as suicides skyrocketed.
## America's slow-motion crisis
The U.S.has outgrown nearly every other wealthy country for two decades, but inequality has kept gradually creeping up to the point that it is corrosive.The Brookings paper calls the U.S.
## The American Dream as blame
Graham found the American Dream narrative turns falling behind into a personal failing. If you are poor, it is your fault because you did not work hard enough. Nobody talks about bad luck.

> Nobody ever talks about bad luck
## Hope predicts life outcomes
In a study with Redzo Mujcic of Warwick Business School following twenty-five thousand Australian adults for fourteen years, those with high hope had better outcomes in health, education and employment.
## Men left out of the data
Prime-age men who have left the labor force are not counted in usual statistics and are in very bad shape.
## The gap between numbers and lives
Graham parts with macroeconomists who say the labor market is strong. For many Americans, their lives are so far from what the numbers are telling. She links the rise of populism to that gap.

> their lives are so far from what the numbers are telling
## A counterargument emerges
Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak at Boston Consulting Group argues the American mood is worse than American reality. Since twenty twenty, wage growth for the bottom quartile has outpaced the top in nearly every year.
## America pulling apart on satisfaction
On Gallup's zero to ten scale, the share of Americans rating their lives seven to ten barely moved while the average fell more steeply. Many continue quite satisfied while others are increasingly unhappy.

> Our narrative and our numbers are really out of touch with how people are living right now
## Key takeaway

Economist Carol Graham finds the U.S. converts income growth into wellbeing less efficiently than peer nations, driven by inequality, individualism and a culture that blames the poor for their poverty.