this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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Really depends on who you are and where you live. I'm watching my Houston ISD getting torn apart before my eyes. Police were running around UH campus clubbing students and dragging them into squad cars just a few weeks ago. The derecho that blew through downtown knocked out 5-10% of the windows in various buildings and killed the power for a few days. Electricity costs have doubled in the last ten years, while summer heat is up a sold five degrees Fahrenheit on average.
Is my standard of living better than it was for someone living in the city a generation ago? Doesn't look like it. But hey, we've got weird new AI and the stock market is very up. Is it better than someone living in Houston in 1824? Yeah... I guess? But so much of that seems to hinge on having electricity and running water. And the more pipes keep bursting and lines keep getting knocked down, the less reliable these services seem.
Average life expectancy has been over 60 years of age since at least the 19th century. A lot of that came entirely out of the advent of vaccinations.
Good think we're not having trouble convincing people to get vaccinated in the modern era, I guess.
Not to forget, how we now "only" work 40h (for most people), but productivity went up and a lot of down times and social interaction in the past, were replaced by workload grind in a now stressful office environments.
That's a deceptive estimate, as the number of employment hours worked across the household has jumped considerably higher. Two income families are the norm while children in low income households are routinely press-ganged into service - either as additional hires or as unpaid support for the primary worker (aiding parents as field workers while the field overseer turns a blind eye, for instance).
Longer commutes, fewer public spaces and services, more haphazard schedules (more and more people working traditional "weekend" periods, particularly in retail, service, and transportation sectors), and more unreliable gig work. Absolutely.