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I agree that the aggregate standards and quality of life are much improved over 20, 40, or 60 years ago, but I don't share your satisfaction with the status quo
by patja 7y ago
I agree that the aggregate standards and quality of life are much improved over 20, 40, or 60 years ago, but I don't share your satisfaction with the status quo. I would prefer we made some changes that enabled the poor to be housed and receive more than emergency room reactive access to health care. No man is an island, and a devotion to meritocracy can blind you to the reality that the accomplishments attributed to merit and hard work are often simply correlated to the ZIP code where you spent your childhood.
In a nation with as much wealth as we enjoy, it is shameful how we relegate our neighbors to defecating on sidewalks, living in tents with no heat or plumbing, and raving in the streets due to lack of mental health care.
- coldtea 7y ago>I agree that the aggregate standards and quality of life are much improved over 20, 40, or 60 years ago Over 100 years ago sure. Over 40 or 60 has it really? People usually consider more stuff (access to cheaper and more gadgets, the internet, etc) as an improved standard of living or quality of life. In other words they conflate technology making some products cheaper for a better standard of living. But even more important factors, for a large part of society is access to healthcare, education, house, etc -- all of which have gotten more expensive. There was a time when a single earner could buy a house at 25 or 35 and get their kids to college. Now two earner families often struggle. Middle class jobs have also become more stressful and pressing, while many middle and working class wages, inflation adjusted, have stagnated for decades, despite the increased stress, working hours, and productivity gains.