>> Did humans live better before 1947? > In some ways, yes. Humans in the U.S. are far better off now in almost every way. Of course there are exceptions. >

>> Did humans live better before 1947? > In some ways, yes. Humans in the U.S. are far better off now in almost every way. Of course there are exceptions. > Democracy is effective at not rounding up dissidents in secret police raids, but in cases like this it breaks down. I disagree strongly; democracies perform exceptionally well economically. All the wealthiest economies are democracies, and they are far wealthier than any other economies in the history of the world. Saying democracies do well for political rights but not economics is like saying Microsoft did well with operating systems but not office suites. And one could argue that human welfare is better in democracies with more planned economies, such as the Nordic countries. Are democracies still very flawed? Absolutely, but I haven't seen a better option. As someone said, democracy is the worst possible choice, except for all the others.