According to a Roper Center study in 1975, a lot of Americans thought the good life meant a happy marriage, one or more children, an interesting job, and a home, reports Juliet B. Schor, author of The Overspent American: Why we want what we don’t need. By 1991, many of the responses were more materialistic: ‘a lot of money’, ‘a second car’, ‘a second color TV’, a vacation home, a swimming pool, and really nice clothes were some of the phrases used to describe the good life.