Showing results by narrator "Robert H. Frank" in All Categories

How important is luck in economic success? No question more reliably divides conservatives from liberals. As conservatives correctly observe, people who amass great fortunes are almost always talented and hardworking. But liberals are also correct to note that countless others have those same qualities yet never earn much. In recent years, social scientists have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in important life outcomes than most people imagine.

Although middle-income families don't earn much more than they did several decades ago, they are buying bigger cars, houses, and appliances. To pay for them, they spend more than they earn and carry record levels of debt. In a book that explores the very meaning of happiness and prosperity in America today, Robert Frank explains how increased concentrations of income and wealth at the top of the economic pyramid have set off "expenditure cascades" that raise the cost of achieving many basic goals for the middle class.

Rachel wusste nicht, wo sie sich befand. Doch sie merkte, dass sich etwas veränderte. Der eben noch durch ihre Hand rasende Schmerz war ebenso verschwunden, wie die durch ihren Körper pulsierende Angst. Da war nichts mehr vom unsagbaren, auf ihrer Brust ruhenden Druck. Nur eine ihr unbekannte Verwirrung war zurückgeblieben, die sich erst in dem Moment zu klären begann, als sie die sich schemenhaft, aus dem dichten Nebel formende Gestalt erkannte.