Do you Think Things are better now?

[MikeD]

From another thread about Montgomery Wards.

yep, it's a different world from when I was a kid.....better I think,

Do you think times are better now than what they used to be? I sure do. Based solely on medicine. I'd be dead a hundred times over if it was then instead of now and I am only talking about the last 75 years. I'm 60 (Oh, dear, where did all the time go?) and got diabetes in 1960 at age 6 and a kidney/pancreas transplant in 1996 at age 42. I wouldn't be here without modern medicine and my wonderful wife of 38 years!

Mike D.

I also love the computer/communications breakthroughs.

 

[Palmtree]

Yup. Think of the marvels of modern dental and health care that have happened in the past 50-100 years. Let us see.... when I was 12 I got me hand caught in a piece of machinery. I've had over 30 filiings since my teeth have always been "soft" according to my dentist. At 40, I fell off the roof any broke both legs..badly. If this happened 100 years ago I would be toothless, missing a left hand and walking (maybe) with a severe limp. More likely I'd be dead from various infections and other things I've experienced from a life time of travel.

 

[ziggy29]

Some things are much, much better. Some things are much, much worse. Whether they are better or worse overall largely depends on what aspects of life, society and economy you put the most weight into.

 

[heeyy_joe]

I'm a half glass full guy, so yeah.

 

[timo2]

Things are better, definitely. People, as a group, are the same. Communication improvements have made the normal human shenanigans around the world more transparent, so it may seem more bad stuff is going on, but that stuff went on anyway. Just no one knew about it like they do now.

 

[steelyman]

I have to admit it's getting better. A little better all the time.

 

[ejman]

Better, MUCH BETTER!

 

[rodi]

Things are better, definitely. People, as a group, are the same. Communication improvements have made the normal human shenanigans around the world more transparent, so it may seem more bad stuff is going on, but that stuff went on anyway. Just no one knew about it like they do now.

As a parent this is especially evident. There have always been pedophiles and predators -but now parents won't let their kids (even teens) play outside without supervision. (I'm bucking this trend big time - not quite free-range - but I definitely push my kids out of the nest regularly.) I remember walking to school from Kinder on, w/out a parent. Since I live in the same house I grew up in it's easy to compare to my own childhood. I considered when to allow my kids to walk to the same school I attended... peer pressure from other parents (and fear of much more aggressive drivers) had me wait till the boys reached 4th grade before I let them walk to school without a parent. Even at that age other parents (and a teacher) told me I was abusive.

We're more aware of crime, etc, because of the 24 hour news cycle... but the bad stuff has always been there. Now we live in fear. The world is largely the same (as far as people.)

As far as innovations - I love my computer. I love my tablet. I love my HD tv. I love my energy star appliances.

 

[ronin]

I have to admit it's getting better. A little better all the time.

Getting so much better all the time!

 

[clifp]

Almost everything is better than when I was a kid. Really the only thing we have to fear is fear itself which is constantly hyped by the ever present media.

Life expectancy is up, crime is down. Out bigger homes our crammed with amazing appliance, greatly reducing the drudgery of everything from making bread, to doing laundry. We no longer have endure old age, with worn out knees, arthritic hips, eyes clouded over by cataracts, or listen to the TV with the volume cranked up.

Out cars, are several times safer, quieter, generally more comfortable, far more fuel efficient, and vastly more reliable than our in our youth. Flying is safer, and less expensive, albeit less fun than it was decades ago.

We have significantly higher rates of graduations for both high school, and college, and much better opportunities to get education even if we aren't traditional students. Not to mention the vast resources of the internet.

As a society we are far more tolerant of those who are different than us, skin color, sexual orientation, religions, and ethnicity are more diverse and more accepted.

Although it feels like we are highly polarized, (and we are in Congress) as society I look back at the 1960 or the 1860 and say now those were really a polarized time.

 

[ERD50]

I'm a half glass full guy, so yeah.

Well I'm a glass half-empty kind of guy, and even I think things are better now, much better.

There are pockets that seem worse, but that might just be media hype. Or it's just that not every single thing has gotten better, but overall, yes, much better.


-ERD50

 

[audreyh1]

Yep. A big part is the Internet!

 

[HFWR]

I have to admit it's getting better. A little better all the time.

Can't get no worse...

 

[longranger]

Hard to be objective about this question. The modern conveniences and medical advances make this an easy question to answer as yes "for me"!!! Unfortunately so many of the comforts us relatively wealthy folks enjoy have come at the expense of other people and the health of our planet. Ask me if I am optimistic that the average person born today. Will they have as good a shot at fairness, justice and a long healthy life as I have. I can only feel profoundly concerned. Not a clue how to answer that one.

 

[ERD50]

... Unfortunately so many of the comforts us relatively wealthy folks enjoy have come at the expense of other people and the health of our planet. ...

?

Our power is cleaner than ever. Pollution controls are more strict. A car today puts out a hundredth, in some case thousandths of the amounts of pollutants as they did 50 years ago. Appliances are more efficient. Recycling is commonplace today.

Sure, our modern lifestyles affect the planet, but in terms of things getting better or worse, they seem far, far better to me today than 50 years ago. And I expect further improvements as renewable sources improve. I'm also optimistic that advances in materials sciences will breath new life into old technologies. Modern materials might bring big improvements to the old internal combustion engines, or it might make a gas turbine with battery series hybrid practical for cars and trucks.

I don't want to go too far into the 'at the expense of other people' comment for fear of going political, but more than anyone, poor people today are far better off than they were 50 years ago.

-ERD50

 

[bUU]

Things were much better. Things were on a pretty steady track toward improvement, going back 350 years, even. The trend in the last 40 years has been in the opposite direction, though it is still too soon to say whether that is just the downside of a normal oscillating cycle or a true inflection in the trend, marking a prolonged period (i.e., more than a few generations) of decline.

 

[Keim]

For all the reasons stated above, I concur things are better. I know I wouldn't have made it to 40 50 years ago.

Despite that, I wonder if people are as happy as they were in the past.

 

[ProspectiveBum]

Things were much better. Things were on a pretty steady track toward improvement, going back 350 years, even. The trend in the last 40 years has been in the opposite direction, though it is still too soon to say whether that is just the downside of a normal oscillating cycle or a true inflection in the trend, marking a prolonged period (i.e., more than a few generations) of decline.

What, in your view, has gotten worse in the last 40 years?


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[hakuna matata]

From my personal viewpoint things are way better than they were 50 years ago.

Just within my family. My fathers father was a poor farmer trying to live off the land, my mother and father never finished high school, and he worked as a laborer for the railroad all his life. All of his children have finished high school and most of them college (me included). ALL of his grandchildren have gone onto college, including my daughter.

So 50 years ago, I was five, living in a shack in a company town owned by the coal mines. I now have my own successful architectural practice, live in a beautiful home with a beautiful wife and daughter, have no debt, and pretty much can do what I want. Looking back at my poor childhood, I am amazed I have successfully made it to the point I am retiring this year.

Thus personally, my family is so much better off than we were 50 years ago, and I haven't even touched on the subjects of electronics, health, internet, etc. So yes, things are WAY better now

 

[Donzo]

Medicine is way better. I often think about how I would have lost my beautiful daughter if it was not for antibiotics. She ended up with a lung infection after going to finals and working with a bad cough/bronchitis. Within 12 hours after a shot and follow up pills her fever broke and she was well on her way to recovery. How tragic it was for people before antibiotics!
One complaint is the rise of terrorism/hate around the world - and no sign of it ending. There have always been problems and brutality, it just seems so much more complicated now.

 

[6miths]

Much, much better. I might also pose that even people are somewhat better than they once were. The world, and the developed world particularly, has become a safer and safer place over the last 40-60 years. Violent crime has dropped dramatically and children are actually probably far safer today than they ever have been - and not because they live such sheltered lives. I agree that the media (and even some of the organizations charged with 'protecting' us) would have us believe that we live in a much more dangerous place than we actually do.

 

[Letj]

Hard to be objective about this question. The modern conveniences and medical advances make this an easy question to answer as yes "for me"!!! Unfortunately so many of the comforts us relatively wealthy folks enjoy have come at the expense of other people and the health of our planet. Ask me if I am optimistic that the average person born today. Will they have as good a shot at fairness, justice and a long healthy life as I have. I can only feel profoundly concerned. Not a clue how to answer that one.

I hear you. Just today, my experience had me wondering the same thing. In fact, I am utterly heart broken after this experience today. I rented a house to an elderly couple, in their upper 70s with obvious disability because they desperately needed to move from the rental which was foreclosed even though they paid their rent every month. They are low income and for most of their lives were part of the working class. They had no one but themselves to rely on and it was the blind leading the blind situation. In fact, I had to go beyond being just a landlord to help them get settled. My life at their age (if I am lucky) would be so different given the resources I have. I couldn't help but wonder why people who have worked so hard and given so much to society would have to end up in a situation like this with virtually no support and no resources. They were renting a house in a low income neighborhood with little to no amenities for older people. I felt sad for them all day.

 

[steelyman]

I hear you. Just today, my experience had me wondering the same thing. In fact, I am utterly heart broken after this experience today. I rented a house to an elderly couple, in their upper 70s with obvious disability because they desperately needed to move from the rental which was foreclosed even though they paid their rent every month. They are low income and for most of their lives were part of the working class. They had no one but themselves to rely on and it was the blind leading the blind situation. In fact, I had to go beyond being just a landlord to help them get settled. My life at their age (if I am lucky) would be so different given the resources I have. I couldn't help but wonder why people who have worked so hard and given so much to society would have to end up in a situation like this with virtually no support and no resources. They were renting a house in a low income neighborhood with little to no amenities for older people. I felt sad for them all day.

Maybe lower their rent?

 

[sengsational]

While I agree that progress has been made in medicine in the past, I see that trend slowing considerably. The concentration by big pharma on products that must be consumed every day for the rest of one's life mean that true cures are no longer being sought. Novo Nordisk used to have a slogan that indicated that they wanted to cure diabetes. Ha! That would put them out of business. What they really want is to treat diabetics (prolong suffering as long as possible to maximize profit). That's just one example. There are hundreds of studies that are going unfunded because the treatment drug is off patent or a cure would destroy an existing business model.

But besides that, everything else is better, hehe!

 

[Keim]

While I agree that progress has been made in medicine in the past, I see that trend slowing considerably. The concentration by big pharma on products that must be consumed every day for the rest of one's life mean that true cures are no longer being sought. Novo Nordisk used to have a slogan that indicated that they wanted to cure diabetes. Ha! That would put them out of business. What they really want is to treat diabetics (prolong suffering as long as possible to maximize profit). That's just one example. There are hundreds of studies that are going unfunded because the treatment drug is off patent or a cure would destroy an existing business model.

But besides that, everything else is better, hehe!

And I thought I was cynical...