The American Dream usually gets wrapped up in one image: a sprawling suburban house, bigger and better than the last guy's.

But here's the kicker—American homes have literally doubled in size over the decades. Doubled. Yet the people living in them? They're not any happier. Not even close.

It's a hard pill to swallow. More square footage, more stuff, more of everything the system sold us on... and somehow we're still chasing the next upgrade. The correlation between material accumulation and actual life satisfaction just isn't there. Maybe it never was.