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I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately. It seems to me that the nefarious ways in which modern media operates are responsible for a large portion of t

by air7 6y ago

I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately. It seems to me that the nefarious ways in which modern media operates are responsible for a large portion of the problems we see in the world today. That's because the world in general is doing better than ever in almost any measurable parameter, yet the general notion is that everything is going to shit. This has real world consequences such as violent riots, couples deciding not to bring a child into "this terrible world", depression etc. The mere choice of what is news worthy and how much coverage any one item gets already warps the mind's heuristics about how often this type of event occurs and thus how important it is. Add to that the "artistic licence" that reporters take (maliciously or otherwise) and the situation becomes really dire. The reason for this problem is that society has decided that news should be a form of entertainment, and news outlets are for-profit companies. Considering these incentives the current state seems inevitable. This has also led me to think of hypothetical solutions. I would argue that "The News" should be a non-profit, state funded entity (or entities). However, these must very much not be state controlled but rather allowed to operate independently. A similar institution is the Judicial System, which doesn't need to worry about clickbaiting titles for its rulings in order to fund itself, yet it has, ideally, full autonomy to procecute people in power if the need arises and we (society) take any attempt of collusion between state and court to be unacceptable. Similarly, an independent yet tax funded news agency can deliver boring, unentertaining news and facts to help save us from ourselves.

kaesar14 6y ago
I think there are plenty of things going wrong in the world as it exists today, at least as an American, that would dissuade me from having children. The exploding costs of childcare, healthcare, and education, let alone the impending crisis of climate change and ecological collapse, are all pretty scary. None of those things need to be exaggerated by the media.
- ledauphin 6y ago
  I tend to think this proves the point. Healthcare and childcare and education are in fact (largely though not comprehensively) nonessential goods that are already in very many ways far better than they were 50 years ago. Childcare wasn't even a thing except for the incredibly wealthy until pretty recently. It would be very difficult to argue that the overall options for post-secondary education (and the number of people taking advantage of them) are not better than 30 years ago, even though their costs are known to be rising much faster than their quality. Most of the kinds of healthcare that are clearly price-gouging were not even categories of healthcare 50 years ago, and most of the ones that were are so qualitatively better now that we're comparing apples and oranges. Etc. Climate change is the one where by almost any objective measure we're headed for potentially irrecoverable catastrophe, and yet this one doesn't actually receive media coverage commensurate with the weight of the potential risk and its probability.
  - kaesar14 6y ago
    Saying things like, "look, it really is better!" when wages haven't gone up in 50 years as college has gotten twice as expensive in the last 20 I think is really missing the point and being overly dismissive of people's life experiences. Price gouging because kinds of healthcare most people weren't really getting a few years ago? My best friend was billed 1100 dollars for an ambulance ride and 4000 dollars for a recent hospitalization that lasted 12 hours. Get out of here with this dismissive nonsense.
    - ledauphin 6y ago
      not intending to dismiss real challenges! merely pointing out that often news media talk about these things like society is crumbling, when they really aren't indicative of that.
    - bhupy 6y ago
      > when wages haven't gone up in 50 years This argument is made time and time again as though it's a self-evident truth...except it's not true at all. The inflation-adjusted median personal income is higher than it's ever been. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N The median disposable income in the US is in the top 3 in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income#Median https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c... Since 1967, the middle class has been shrinking...because the upper class has been growing: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/25/upshot/shrinking-middle-class.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/25/upshot/shrink... Yes, college has gotten more expensive (and there are a lot of reasons why), but it's also worth contextualizing: the median number of years to recoup the cost of a bachelors degree, adjusted for inflation, has gone down since the 1980’s, from about 22 years to about 10 years. https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2014/09/the-value-of-a-college-degree.html https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2014/09/the-va... This is all information you're not going to read in most news media today, because it's, well, pretty boring and doesn't generate revenue. Yes, there are always improvements that we need to make. Healthcare is indeed a bit of a mess. There are a number of ways to fix it (and not just the one proposal you keep hearing about). Does that mean society is crumbling? Absolutely not. We're living in just about the best time in human history. But climate change is very real, and just about the most catastrophic thing we have to worry about.
brahweh 6y ago
> That's because the world in general is doing better than ever in almost any measurable parameter, yet the general notion is that everything is going to shit. If you're interested in reading more about this phenomenon, I'd recommend Factfulness by Hans Rosling. He discusses how statistics are often presented pessimistically, but if you look at our world as a complete system over time, things really are better than they've ever been in most cases. We just tend to overlook slow and steady improvement because it's boring, as you mention. And, his first global risk we should be on the lookout for is "global pandemic" (published 2018), so that's gotta count for something in supporting his arguments.

by air7 6y ago

kaesar14 6y ago

I think there are plenty of things going wrong in the world as it exists today, at least as an American, that would dissuade me from having children. The exploding costs of childcare, healthcare, and education, let alone the impending crisis of climate change and ecological collapse, are all pretty scary. None of those things need to be exaggerated by the media.

ledauphin 6y ago
I tend to think this proves the point. Healthcare and childcare and education are in fact (largely though not comprehensively) nonessential goods that are already in very many ways far better than they were 50 years ago. Childcare wasn't even a thing except for the incredibly wealthy until pretty recently. It would be very difficult to argue that the overall options for post-secondary education (and the number of people taking advantage of them) are not better than 30 years ago, even though their costs are known to be rising much faster than their quality. Most of the kinds of healthcare that are clearly price-gouging were not even categories of healthcare 50 years ago, and most of the ones that were are so qualitatively better now that we're comparing apples and oranges. Etc. Climate change is the one where by almost any objective measure we're headed for potentially irrecoverable catastrophe, and yet this one doesn't actually receive media coverage commensurate with the weight of the potential risk and its probability.
- kaesar14 6y ago
  Saying things like, "look, it really is better!" when wages haven't gone up in 50 years as college has gotten twice as expensive in the last 20 I think is really missing the point and being overly dismissive of people's life experiences. Price gouging because kinds of healthcare most people weren't really getting a few years ago? My best friend was billed 1100 dollars for an ambulance ride and 4000 dollars for a recent hospitalization that lasted 12 hours. Get out of here with this dismissive nonsense.
  - ledauphin 6y ago
    not intending to dismiss real challenges! merely pointing out that often news media talk about these things like society is crumbling, when they really aren't indicative of that.
  - bhupy 6y ago
    > when wages haven't gone up in 50 years This argument is made time and time again as though it's a self-evident truth...except it's not true at all. The inflation-adjusted median personal income is higher than it's ever been. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N The median disposable income in the US is in the top 3 in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income#Median https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c... Since 1967, the middle class has been shrinking...because the upper class has been growing: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/25/upshot/shrinking-middle-class.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/25/upshot/shrink... Yes, college has gotten more expensive (and there are a lot of reasons why), but it's also worth contextualizing: the median number of years to recoup the cost of a bachelors degree, adjusted for inflation, has gone down since the 1980’s, from about 22 years to about 10 years. https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2014/09/the-value-of-a-college-degree.html https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2014/09/the-va... This is all information you're not going to read in most news media today, because it's, well, pretty boring and doesn't generate revenue. Yes, there are always improvements that we need to make. Healthcare is indeed a bit of a mess. There are a number of ways to fix it (and not just the one proposal you keep hearing about). Does that mean society is crumbling? Absolutely not. We're living in just about the best time in human history. But climate change is very real, and just about the most catastrophic thing we have to worry about.

brahweh 6y ago

> That's because the world in general is doing better than ever in almost any measurable parameter, yet the general notion is that everything is going to shit. If you're interested in reading more about this phenomenon, I'd recommend Factfulness by Hans Rosling. He discusses how statistics are often presented pessimistically, but if you look at our world as a complete system over time, things really are better than they've ever been in most cases. We just tend to overlook slow and steady improvement because it's boring, as you mention. And, his first global risk we should be on the lookout for is "global pandemic" (published 2018), so that's gotta count for something in supporting his arguments.