A quick note on the human development index, there's an average one (where say bill gates walking into a room of homeless people means the average person in the

A quick note on the human development index, there's an average one (where say bill gates walking into a room of homeless people means the average person in the room is a billionaire) and an inequality-adjusted one (where you get the same thing, only adjusted for the fact that one guy holds 99.99% of the wealth in the room and the average person is actually homeless). I'm exaggerating my story a little bit of course. Anyway, on the adjusted figure, the US comes in at nr 28, which is certainly not a great place to be as there aren't all that many developed countries, let alone rich developed countries. Further, the HDI is really lacking in certain areas. But it's decent, unlike the 'OECD better life' index which is a complete joke. Beyond that, anyone taking a serious look at our society would have to conclude it's much better off across the board than before. Look at education rates, crime rates, life expectancy, civil rights, it's a world of difference in some cases. Drugs is somewhat a new issue that didn't exist in the same fashion long ago (although already better than the 80s for example), and poverty remains tricky. But even there, I'm a kid from a poor family from a minority background and I've traveled and studied in different continents, have advanced degrees, a decent job. There's opportunity for me that simply wasn't there, as you mention, some decades ago. And to be poor today usually means you have access to a basic quality of life that simply wasn't available back then. I know plenty of people who didn't have warm water growing up, showered at the neighbours or some public facility. That's virtually unthinkable in western-europe today, as I would assume to a large extent it is in the US. I won't even go into the value of something like the internet that cost me growing up the equivalent of 4 hours of wages in a supermarket per month, and from which I gained priceless value, the fact my wealth didn't grow during this time versus the wealth of similar people 50 years ago, didn't capture the immense wealth I had accessible to me that they didn't. These things are not always easy to capture in terms of GDP growth, if anything the 'added value' of a telephone or postal service that got swallowed up by dirt cheap instant messaging, probably reduced GDP if anything. And worldwide... oh man, TREMENDOUS progress we somehow don't celebrate. I mean just compare the number of kids under 5 who die per year of preventable issues today and say in 1995, just 20 years ago. A quick hint, the annual figure roughly halved and it's equivalent to roughly the holocaust (6 million deaths) being prevented every single year. Poverty reduction is hugely positive, too, as is primary and secondary school attendance and healthcare. It's quite amazing how shitty things were, and how ignorantly nostalgic we are.