The world as we knew it has changed forever, and the American Century looks to conclude with a huge party. But if we are so rich, how come we're not happy? "There is not a lot of euphoria out there," says Tom Smith of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, whose survey finds that job satisfaction, financial satisfaction and overall happiness are all lower now than the average for the past 20 years.

New technology may be fueling gains in productivity, but that means many people are working harder than before. Americans are working 160 hours more each year than they did 20 years ago, moonlighting is on the rise and nearly half the respondents in one survey said they have less time for lunch. Anxiety disorders affect more people than depression or substance abuse. "People were saying, 'As soon as things get good, I'm going to take some time off,'" says pollster Celinda Lake. "And now they say, 'Oh, my God, things have gotten as good as they can get, and I can't take time off or stop that second job.'"

In this climate, it is easy to find people like the Jorjorians in affluent Wilmette, Ill., who are raising two children and finding it tough to get by on their $170,000 joint income. "I earn more in a month than my dad did in a year," says Greg, 52, managing director for a chemical-sales company. "But I feel my life is more difficult."

Ralph Keyes was on the phone the other day with a friend, assuming that she was interested in what he was saying. Then, he heard the sound of envelopes ripping in the background.

"I realized she was looking at her mail and I got upset," said Keyes, the author of "Timelock: How Life Got So Hectic and What You Can Do About It." "But then I realized that this is modern life, and modern life means doing several things at once."

Admit it, you're probably doing it right now. Are you microwaving your coffee and shushing the kids, who are watching the TV while crayoning a card for Grandma who, by the way, has just entered her phone number on your pulsing beeper?

Life is fast and there is so much to do. "Time has become a commodity, and one wants to get the most out of our commodities," said Geoffrey Godbey, a professor of leisure studies at Penn State University.

Surprisingly, people today have more leisure time than their parents did. According to studies, men have 40.4 hours of leisure time a week, five hours more than in 1965, while women have 38.9 hours a week, six more than in the 1960s. What is different is that folks today are trying to pack more things into the 24-hour day.

"Since TV enables you to watch more than one program at a time, you could argue that daily life for more and more of us has come to resemble that kind of multiplicious spectacle," said Mark Crispin Miller, professor of media studies at Johns Hopkins University. "The troubling thing about this experience is it creates a dependency on a certain level of stimulation and on a certain quickness. You feel anxious if you are not distracted. It has helped to make people less capable of sitting by themselves and reading or doing just one thing. Silence is restorative. It allows you to collect your wits. But the stimuli don't let you have wits."

Worrying and anxiety may kill you, according to a study published in Circulation, the Journal of the American Heart Association. Studies indicate that your risk of heart attack is higher than normal if you're a congenital worrier.

Stress is rising to record levels in the workplace, says the Institute of Management. The Institute says 270,000 Britons a day take time off work because of stress. Inefficiency, lost production and absenteeism are thought to cost £7 billion a year. A new report by training company Priority Management found that business people were working with dangerous levels of stress in a desperate effort to meet deadlines.

A picture emerged from the report of a "just-in-time" culture in which people are only just managing to get tasks done at work--and resulting pressures spilled over to cause havoc in their private lives.