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> I'm just too old for that type of pessimism. Things do get better. I realize this is a huge tangent, but why do you feel this way? Between wealth disparity

> I'm just too old for that type of pessimism. Things do get better. I realize this is a huge tangent, but why do you feel this way? Between wealth disparity (admittedly what we're arguing here so obviously it's debatable), global warming, dwindling finite resources, unsustainable debts (I am aware of MMT) - I feel quite the opposite. It feels like we're robbing the future to benefit the now. I realize we could easily go back and forth with lists of "this is why things are worse" and "this is why things are better" but my question is why do you think, as a whole, things are improving?

rufus_foreman 5y ago
>> why do you think, as a whole, things are improving I was born in 1970. I know how I grew up. I know what my parents living standard was and I know what my grandparents living standard was. I have my admittedly failing memory, but I still remember. If you want to believe things aren't improving, I'm not going to stand in your way. It's your world now. You own it. But god damn, there are reasons I would go back and live in 1976 again, but living standard isn't one of them.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  Has the living standard of everyone increased equally?
  - rufus_foreman 5y ago
    Probably not. Going from a net worth of $1 million to $2 million is probably not as life changing as going from a living standard of $1.90 a day to $3.80 a day. Wasn't for me. So probably no.
dionidium 5y ago
When I was a kid in the 1980s I was constantly in fear of global nuclear war, it was basically impossible to be openly gay in my small Missouri town, a significant percentage of the population thought interracial marriages were wrong, my uncle had fought in Vietnam and came home a heroin addict, we’d just seen a decade of high unemployment and inflation and so on and so on. It’s easy in any era to list out 9 or 10 things that everybody is worried about. It would be pretty weird if you couldn’t think of 9 or 10 things to be worried about today. The question is whether things are better or worse on balance. And by that accounting I think there are lots of reasons to be optimistic.
- OnlineGladiator 5y ago
  > The question is whether things are better or worse on balance. And by that accounting I think there are lots of reasons to be optimistic. Such as? Nuclear arsenals are still a thing and more countries have them now. Inflation is ramping up right now and many people say the economy is on the verge of being utterly fucked. Apart from that it seems like you're generalizing life from a small town specific to your family. I can cherry pick anecdotes from my own life to paint a picture either way too, it doesn't really tell us anything substantial.

rufus_foreman 5y ago

>> why do you think, as a whole, things are improving I was born in 1970. I know how I grew up. I know what my parents living standard was and I know what my grandparents living standard was. I have my admittedly failing memory, but I still remember. If you want to believe things aren't improving, I'm not going to stand in your way. It's your world now. You own it. But god damn, there are reasons I would go back and live in 1976 again, but living standard isn't one of them.

netizen-936824 5y ago
Has the living standard of everyone increased equally?
- rufus_foreman 5y ago
  Probably not. Going from a net worth of $1 million to $2 million is probably not as life changing as going from a living standard of $1.90 a day to $3.80 a day. Wasn't for me. So probably no.

dionidium 5y ago

When I was a kid in the 1980s I was constantly in fear of global nuclear war, it was basically impossible to be openly gay in my small Missouri town, a significant percentage of the population thought interracial marriages were wrong, my uncle had fought in Vietnam and came home a heroin addict, we’d just seen a decade of high unemployment and inflation and so on and so on. It’s easy in any era to list out 9 or 10 things that everybody is worried about. It would be pretty weird if you couldn’t think of 9 or 10 things to be worried about today. The question is whether things are better or worse on balance. And by that accounting I think there are lots of reasons to be optimistic.

OnlineGladiator 5y ago
> The question is whether things are better or worse on balance. And by that accounting I think there are lots of reasons to be optimistic. Such as? Nuclear arsenals are still a thing and more countries have them now. Inflation is ramping up right now and many people say the economy is on the verge of being utterly fucked. Apart from that it seems like you're generalizing life from a small town specific to your family. I can cherry pick anecdotes from my own life to paint a picture either way too, it doesn't really tell us anything substantial.