3 ms·

Why is the current standard of living the ideal? Why not 10 years ago, or 10 years into the future? How about 20? 30?

• danbruc 12y ago
  I don't think that the current standard of living is ideal and I really hope it will improve a lot. But I don't see that improving the standard of living requires economic growth, I think change will do.
  • nhaehnle 12y ago
    This is a common misconception about economic growth. Economic growth often means more physical stuff, but there is by no means a fixed link between the two. Higher quality products built out of the same amount of physical stuff have a higher price, for example, so if we somehow transitioned the economy in that direction, there would be economic growth - and a corresponding increase in the standard of living - without pushing environmental concerns, for example.
• sebastianconcpt 12y ago
  As long as there is violence, we will not be able to say we actually achieved Civilisation. So, no. We are quite far from the ideal standard of living. We are more in a semi-spherical ball of water and continental psychiatric hospitals
  • Retra 12y ago
    Sorry, but that is nonsense. Nobody cares if you can say you "achieved civilization," because that's not a term anybody has every used to qualify human achievement. You're painting a portrait that nobody cares to look at. That, and what you've said is just patently false by any definition in circulation.
    • danbruc 12y ago
      I actually have to agree. Everybody is easily able to imagine what the world should be like - no war, no crime, no starving, no destroying the planet. And what are we actually doing? We are so incredible far off. And there are zero real obstacles, only human stupidity and evilness. Everybody on its own is only a bit stupid, evil, egoistic or what not, but all off us combined are anything but good. We are making little baby steps, ridiculous tiny baby steps.
      • Retra 12y ago
        Oh, I agree that there is work to be done. I don't see the value in framing that in terms of "calling ourselves a civilization." "A civilization (or civilisation in British English) is any complex state society characterized by urban development, social stratification, symbolic communication forms (typically, writing systems), and a perceived separation from and domination over the natural environment." -- Wikipedia