4 ms·

Tell that to someone making 35K/year.

Consultant32452 7y ago
Doesn't matter. If you could choose when to be born, but not know your race, sex, gender, sexual preference, general health, or family income.... There is no doubt it's better to be born in 2019 than 1919.
- mikeash 7y ago
  How about 1999 or 1989?
  - Consultant32452 7y ago
    1999 for sure, especially if you don't get to choose where you're born across the world.
    - mikeash 7y ago
      Agreed if we're looking at the whole world, but I thought we were looking at the US specifically.
      - Consultant32452 7y ago
        The difference across a decade is somewhat negligible. But just in the last few years we've gotten gay marriage, marijuana is getting legalized, crime reform, HIV treatment is becoming widely available... Humans have a tendency to focus on the one or two things that might be worse for them, but over all life is better in almost every way you can think of. Every year is better than the last.
- harimau777 7y ago
  It is a good thing that we treat minorities and the poor better than we did in the past. However, that doesn't mean that the middle class are not worse off than they were at that time.
  - Consultant32452 7y ago
    If you got to choose between being a middle class white man in 1919 or 2019, 2019 is obviously the better choice. Even ignoring impending ww2 and the dust bowl for the 1919 case.
- smcg 7y ago
  "better" doesn't mean "good".
  - Consultant32452 7y ago
    Let's be really clear about scales here. Not just "better" but "the best it's ever been in the history of the world." The world we live in is an absolute miracle. For most of human history it was amazing if our children managed to survive the winter. My grandparents faced the very real prospect of dying from food scarcity. I can push a few buttons on my phone and a hot cooked meal will arrive at my doorstep in under an hour. Most of the diseases that were the cause of human death and misery aren't even on our radar, because we've cured them. I can go flip a switch on my wall and the room will be illuminated because literally tens of thousands of people have all worked together in relative harmony to make it possible. Our closest biological relatives, chimps, brutally rip apart their own infants and eat their brains as a matter of course. That's biological reality. That's your starting point. Everything past that is a gift. If we just want to say that we can imagine an even better life than the one we have today and we should work towards that.. I'm right there with you. But how can you look around you and say life isn't good? Not "good" compared to what situation that has ever existed in all of history?

Doesn't matter. If you could choose when to be born, but not know your race, sex, gender, sexual preference, general health, or family income.... There is no doubt it's better to be born in 2019 than 1919.

mikeash 7y ago
How about 1999 or 1989?
- Consultant32452 7y ago
  1999 for sure, especially if you don't get to choose where you're born across the world.
  - mikeash 7y ago
    Agreed if we're looking at the whole world, but I thought we were looking at the US specifically.
    - Consultant32452 7y ago
      The difference across a decade is somewhat negligible. But just in the last few years we've gotten gay marriage, marijuana is getting legalized, crime reform, HIV treatment is becoming widely available... Humans have a tendency to focus on the one or two things that might be worse for them, but over all life is better in almost every way you can think of. Every year is better than the last.
harimau777 7y ago
It is a good thing that we treat minorities and the poor better than we did in the past. However, that doesn't mean that the middle class are not worse off than they were at that time.
- Consultant32452 7y ago
  If you got to choose between being a middle class white man in 1919 or 2019, 2019 is obviously the better choice. Even ignoring impending ww2 and the dust bowl for the 1919 case.
smcg 7y ago
"better" doesn't mean "good".
- Consultant32452 7y ago
  Let's be really clear about scales here. Not just "better" but "the best it's ever been in the history of the world." The world we live in is an absolute miracle. For most of human history it was amazing if our children managed to survive the winter. My grandparents faced the very real prospect of dying from food scarcity. I can push a few buttons on my phone and a hot cooked meal will arrive at my doorstep in under an hour. Most of the diseases that were the cause of human death and misery aren't even on our radar, because we've cured them. I can go flip a switch on my wall and the room will be illuminated because literally tens of thousands of people have all worked together in relative harmony to make it possible. Our closest biological relatives, chimps, brutally rip apart their own infants and eat their brains as a matter of course. That's biological reality. That's your starting point. Everything past that is a gift. If we just want to say that we can imagine an even better life than the one we have today and we should work towards that.. I'm right there with you. But how can you look around you and say life isn't good? Not "good" compared to what situation that has ever existed in all of history?