4 ms·
I mean, there are less starving people than there were in most of the world. We've made progress. In my lifetime we've made progress! I mean, there are momen
by piloto_ciego 4mo ago
I mean, there are less starving people than there were in most of the world. We've made progress. In my lifetime we've made progress! I mean, there are momentary set backs and they are egregious, I agree with that for sure, but the world is wildly better than it was in the early 90s or early 00s.
I was there (cue Elrond meme), I remember.
And god forbid you were gay back then, or had an ailment that needed some high tech treatment, or needed to talk to someone on the other side of the planet for any reason, or wanted to have access to knoeledge.
We've come so far, and the people yapping about how "everything is the worst" are reactionary. Yes there are problems, I don't want to downplay them. But largely, until very recently, things were getting better en masse and zoomed out enough in time that trend will likely continue if we don't blow it all up or do something stupid like decide that science is too scary to do.
What I mostly see in these threads is "Capitalist Realism" - people can't even imagine things turning out some way other than "capital controls everything forever."
- throwaway-11-1 4mo agoYour response is not addressing my claims, homelessness is increasing, life expectancy is lagging poorer countries and there are still food security issues not being addressed in the richest country in history. I’m discussing material outcomes and you want to focus on social progress….which is fine I guess? Anyway I have receipts https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/#Life%20expectancy%20at%20birth,%20in%20years,%201980-2024 https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-lif... https://www.unc.edu/discover/u-s-life-expectancy-drop-caused-by-more-than-pandemic/ https://www.unc.edu/discover/u-s-life-expectancy-drop-caused... https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/fo... https://www.security.org/resources/homeless-statistics/ https://www.security.org/resources/homeless-statistics/
- ben_w 4mo agoThose are all US stats. US got problems. World's much bigger than the US, and is getting better: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?time=1770..2023&country=~OWID_WRL https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?time=1770... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment?country=~OWID_WRL https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernouris... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-population-living-in-extreme-poverty-by-world-region https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-population-living-i...
- throwaway-11-1 4mo agoYeah that’s totally fair and really good to see. It’s maybe the one perspective that gives me some hope
- omicronxt 4mo agoOur world in data is neoliberal think tank supported by billionares. They got bad reputation of misrepresenting data to favor capitalism as inherently progressive.
- bit-anarchist 4mo ago> Our world in data is neoliberal think tank How so?