BOOK REVIEW / NONFICTION : Why Isn’t Success Good Enough for Us? : THE GOOD LIFE AND ITS DISCONTENTS: How the American Dream Became a Fantasy, 1945-1995 by Robert J. Samuelson; Times Books $25, 293 pages

Robert J. Samuelson has always been his own man.

Now 50, Samuelson has been going his own way all his adult life, eschewing intellectual fashions and conventions as a writer on what used to be called “political economy.” He was first a freelancer, then a columnist for the Washington Post and Newsweek. His independence is on view again in his first book.

Like the good reporter that he is, Samuelson lays out his thesis in the first sentence of the book: “The paradox of our time is that Americans are feeling bad about doing well.”

He argues that in the last 50 years America has been “enormously successful.” We Americans “have achieved unprecedented levels of material prosperity and personal freedom. We are healthier, live longer, work at less exhausting jobs than any time in our history.” There is even more job security, despite the harsher new world of the 1990s, and there is a safety net for the aged, the poor and the disabled we never had before. Discrimination based on race, sex and religion has diminished dramatically.

“America is a far wealthier and more compassionate society than [it was] 50 years ago,” Samuelson writes. He says that surveys show that about four-fifths of Americans are satisfied with their lives. But when asked about the country, he says, “Americans are routinely glum.” About 60% express pessimism about the country’s prospects.

Why?

Samuelson believes that post-World War II America has created an unattainable society of entitlement. More than the list of government benefits, such as Social Security, given to those who qualify, Samuelson means by entitlement those things that Americans have come to expect:

“Secure jobs, rising living standards, enlightened corporations, generous government, high-quality health care, racial harmony, a clean environment, safe cities, satisfying work and personal fulfillment.”

The trouble is, in a constantly changing capitalistic society not all these goals are attainable at the level we want them to be. “Our societal performance is judged against impossible standards and, naturally, found wanting,” he says. So we have been “complaining and whining.”

Wanting more from government, we have come to trust it less. Expecting something close to perfection in our lives, we tend to blame shadowy powers when we don’t receive it. Eventually, Samuelson implies, the whole American system tends to fall into disrepute.

His analysis covers the last 50 years from several angles. He carefully details the rise and fall of the notion that government could moderate the business cycle and produce a steadily rising prosperity that would fund ever-growing ambitions for social amelioration.

He has an interesting chapter on the Depression, which he believes the major governments caused by vainly trying to maintain the gold standard. (He believes that John Maynard Keynes missed that point as he tried to create a general law of economics.)

Samuelson marks in detail the way that various interests, from corporations to consumers to rights groups, have tried to bend the government to their own interests even as it has grown larger. He observes that the more that government does, the harder it becomes to define the national interest as distinct from a special private interest.

I think that the main points of Samuelson’s book are correct. No one who remembers 1945 can doubt that in nearly every way for most people this is a much better place to live in than it was then.

And it is true that politicians over-promise and people over-want.

But I think he is too hard on the little guy. Too many little guys are having to run ever faster just to stay in place, and many are falling back. Samuelson mentions the growing income disparity that is disheartening to many Americans, but doesn’t fully recognize its corrosive effect on the public mind.

It is true that, as Joseph Schumpeter said, “Economic progress, in capitalist society, means turmoil.” But that is of no comfort to an important secretary in a great corporation being downsized. “We used to be treated with respect,” she said. “Now we are just objects.” That is not whining or complaining. It’s a simple human truth.

These, though, are not disqualifying points. This book is as good a guide to understanding the political economy of modern America as you are likely to get.