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Comment by munksbeer | Hacker News Reader

> but it's still depressing, to be honest.

Cheer up. Things usually get better, we just don't notice it because we're so consumed with extrapolating the negatives. Humans are funny like that.

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It’s fairly common for (at least) specific things to get worse and then never improve again.

I actually disagree with that. People are so busy hoping things will get better, and creating little bubbles for themselves to hide away from what human beings as a whole are doing, that they don't realize things are getting worse. Technology constantly makes things worse. Cheering up is a good self-help strategy but not a good strategy if you want to contribute to making the world actually a better place.

>Technology constantly makes things worse.

And it also makes things a lot better. Overall we lead better lives than people just 50 years ago, never mind centuries.

No way. Life 50 years ago was better for MANY. Maybe that would be true for 200. But 50 years ago was the 70s. There were far fewer people, and the world was not starting to suffer from climate change. Tell your statement to any climate refugee, and ask them whether they'd like to live now or back then.

AND, we had fewer computers and life was not so hectic. YES, some things have gotten better, but on average? It's arguable.

I think you're demonstrating the point I was trying to make. You're falling for a very prevalent narrative that just isn't true.

Fact: Life has improved for the majority of people on the planet in the last 50 years.

Not a fact. An opinion.

There are an incredible amount of ways that life is better today than 50 years ago. For starters the life expectancy has almost universally improved.

Not necessarily a good thing if overall life experience is worse.

Maybe life was better 50 years ago if you were a white salaryman living in the USA, but outside of that things have improved for everyone else.

Most objective measurements of basic quality of life have improved: life expectancy, food security, education, etc.

What about access to nature, clean air, and space to think? Those have gone down.

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