No, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to obtain our status as a nearly Type I civilization (we are currently 0.73 on the Kardashev scale). But we do have a

No, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to obtain our status as a nearly Type I civilization (we are currently 0.73 on the Kardashev scale). But we do have a lot of what some describe as sludge. For example, in the USA, with the awful state of healthcare, where even with a good job and "good" benefits and being in the so-called 1%, it can be a struggle to obtain certain kinds of medication, and insurance companies will absolutely fuck with you to avoid paying, giving patients the runaround and making them waste hours and days in endless phone call black holes until you give up. Doctor's offices and hospitals will and do double- and even triple-bill you, then bully you into paying by sending you to collections. God forbid you should get a catastrophic illness. There are so many similar and related examples that we could have entire threads about. There was a book recently written about this but I cannot find it right now...will update when I do. There certainly is the sense that we are losing a lot in terms of core values, especially as technology evolves (we seem to be resembling the movie Idiocracy more and more), but this has also been the case with other, now fallen civilizations. The ancient Greeks thought that books/the written word would bring about the destruction of their society because people would lose their ability to use their memories.