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Comment by thriftwy | Hacker News Reader

There's no room to grow.

In the modern world, for most people, there's nothing productive to do and no fame to get from it.

In the USA, all the highways are already built (and even when they're failing, their fixing will be postponed). High speed rail lines weren't, and they're not going to be. Not on any human time frame.

So most people are engaged with running pre-built technosphere that is slowly falling apart, with no new developments, for ever-shrinking pay, while more and more money are extorted from them to pay for previous generations entitlements, and also for medicine, real estate, tuition and law, which from services all turned into endless money sinks.

Friges and ovens are not the alpha and omega of life. Productivity, respect and growth are. Are we having any all across post-development countries?

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"There's no room to grow."

"Productivity, respect and growth are. Are we having any all across post-development countries?"

Have any of you ever taken a basic Econ course?

'No room for growth'?

THE ECONOMY HAS BEEN GROWING EVERY YEAR.

Do you realize that 'feature phones' to 'cell phones' is economic growth?

Do you realize that '2G to 4G' is economic growth?

Do you realize that more people going to college than ever before is good?

There are new medicine trials every day - gene therapy. Jesus H Christ you can now chose the gender and eye colour of your offspring. That's how advanced we are.

100 years ago - there was no 'medicine'. 95% of all operations were basically amputations with crossed fingers of no infection.

Do you realize that the amount of air travel in the world has doubled in the last little while?

That you have access to 100000x more information that people just 20 years ago, before the internet?

You do realize that the iPhone/Android/Facebook are only 10 years old?

That 20 years ago there was no YCombinator?

I'm just going to assume that most of you are too young to have any perspective, because I just can't understand the commentary here.

When you hit your 30's, you can look back and your own life can be a literal testament to the change.

Yes, some things stay the same, but at least in terms of material productivity, things are better.

> THE ECONOMY HAS BEEN GROWING

If the college provides same service while extorting twice as much money, this means that economy grows, but people become poorer, more indebted and strained. The economy might be growing; but WE don't.

> Do you realize that more people going to college than ever before is good?

But when they graduate they have worse employment prospects than High School graduates 40 years ago.

> Do you realize that '2G to 4G' is economic growth?

But how many participate in it as makers and not just as consumers?

When Interstates happened, a lot of people made them with their hands. But now, very few people are directly involved in the 2G to 4G transition and are proud for it. The others just feel like a passengers in a fast moving bus without any control of the route, or, for that reason, trip safety.

> Jesus H Christ you can now chose the gender and eye colour of your offspring

But can you afford it today as a middle-income person? If you can't, it's not there yet. What's the engagement numbers?

> You do realize that the iPhone/Android/Facebook are only 10 years old?

...but I liked more what was before them. I would have preferred N900 and LiveJournal, too bad I don't have this choice realistically. Talk about bus passengers.

> Do you realize that the amount of air travel in the world has doubled in the last little while?

How many people are making it happen? And not on the crappy jobs such as flight attendants? Wait - now even the pilots have their jobs unsatisfactory thanks to long hours and bad pay.

> When you hit your 30's

I'm 32.

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