3 ms·

It's worse for most people. Evidenced by unhappiness, drug/antidepressant use, declining birth rates, institutional distrust and breakdown of social relationshi

It's worse for most people. Evidenced by unhappiness, drug/antidepressant use, declining birth rates, institutional distrust and breakdown of social relationships. Before, people ate less on average but the food that they did eat was far higher quality (all organic, local produce). Nowadays you have to go to a Michelin star restaurant to get the same quality produce as the average poor person would get every day in the old days. Real estate was cheaper and it was possible to buy a house near your job with savings alone. There were fewer regulations so you could build your own house yourself without worrying about compliance with thousands of different council laws. The family bond was stronger and based on honesty and shared values (now it's more individualistic). If you had the skills to produce something useful, the market was less competitive so it was possible for essentially anyone to improve their standard of living through education and hard work. Also, employees had stronger bonds with employers and it wasn't uncommon for the business owner to sell or handover management of the business to their top employees (and the pool of employees was far smaller/less competitive). Nowadays, it's not possible for certain people to climb out of poverty because their competitors are big corporations who have access to easy money from banks and governments. Also within corporations, the level of competition is extreme, often counter-productive and the environment is toxic, suppressed and censored. Also, there is constant gaslighting in the media telling everyone how good things are when it doesn't match observable reality at all.

zip1234 5y ago
I disagree that the food was better for them previously. For as 'bad' as the foods are that we eat today, we have access to plenty of vitamins and nutritional issues in childhood are much less prevalent. Read about iodine deficiency for an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency. That said, there is certainly plenty of truth to the house building/land use issues. I don't think anywhere has fully handled the new technology of the automobile well as the handling of automobiles has been a major driver of the issues in housing. Unchecked automobile use allows much more land to be used, but conversely encourages dumb land use rules that encourage sprawl and add miserable amounts of noise, pollution, and render most public space (roads) uninhabitable by people. I think the next century will have society figuring out a better balance or some new solutions.
tonyedgecombe 5y ago
> Nowadays you have to go to a Michelin star restaurant to get the same quality produce as the average poor person would get every day in the old days. You obviously haven’t eaten British food from the seventies. It was dire.
- cryptica 5y ago
  I guess that must have been the downside of living in a northern country during the winter. International freight was probably not advanced enough for perishable goods back then... They probably had to pick produce when they were unripe and let it ripen on the way (a lot less tasty). I lived in a country near the equator with year-round good weather so we didn't have this problem. Many people had land and small vegetable gardens. Fruits tasted amazing. I remember bananas used to be my favorite fruit; that was before the Cavendish variety took over. Nowadays, bananas mostly just taste very sweet with a not much other flavor. Nothing like it used to be. I don't even like bananas anymore. Mangoes also tasted amazing. Now it's hard to find good ones (though still possible but hard). Same with most vegetables; Tomatoes often taste bland nowadays; they're optimized for color, not flavor and they're picked when green/unripe to avoid damage. In many countries in the EU, meat is terrible nowadays. A lot of meat products are heavily processed; sometimes a hamburger patty tastes more like a tough sausage and chicken tastes fatty and rubbery.

zip1234 5y ago

I disagree that the food was better for them previously. For as 'bad' as the foods are that we eat today, we have access to plenty of vitamins and nutritional issues in childhood are much less prevalent. Read about iodine deficiency for an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency. That said, there is certainly plenty of truth to the house building/land use issues. I don't think anywhere has fully handled the new technology of the automobile well as the handling of automobiles has been a major driver of the issues in housing. Unchecked automobile use allows much more land to be used, but conversely encourages dumb land use rules that encourage sprawl and add miserable amounts of noise, pollution, and render most public space (roads) uninhabitable by people. I think the next century will have society figuring out a better balance or some new solutions.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago

> Nowadays you have to go to a Michelin star restaurant to get the same quality produce as the average poor person would get every day in the old days. You obviously haven’t eaten British food from the seventies. It was dire.

cryptica 5y ago
I guess that must have been the downside of living in a northern country during the winter. International freight was probably not advanced enough for perishable goods back then... They probably had to pick produce when they were unripe and let it ripen on the way (a lot less tasty). I lived in a country near the equator with year-round good weather so we didn't have this problem. Many people had land and small vegetable gardens. Fruits tasted amazing. I remember bananas used to be my favorite fruit; that was before the Cavendish variety took over. Nowadays, bananas mostly just taste very sweet with a not much other flavor. Nothing like it used to be. I don't even like bananas anymore. Mangoes also tasted amazing. Now it's hard to find good ones (though still possible but hard). Same with most vegetables; Tomatoes often taste bland nowadays; they're optimized for color, not flavor and they're picked when green/unripe to avoid damage. In many countries in the EU, meat is terrible nowadays. A lot of meat products are heavily processed; sometimes a hamburger patty tastes more like a tough sausage and chicken tastes fatty and rubbery.