How exactly was "Life better in the past"?

[oyarde]

Some seem to feel that "life sucks and only get suckier". There are (and always have been) both good and bad things going on. There never really was a "good old days" when things were all wonderful except maybe in movies. By only looking at the bad you miss a lot of wonderful things going on.

I am actually fine with where I am now Zip , but I would not want to be a young person today , I seriously doubt the majority of them will ever attain what I was able to or even hit the " median " in the future. Where , in my time , most could have if they were just willing to work hard enough .

 

[PRB]

No , the obvious problem that you avoided ,for a simple man such as myself is the govt takes too much of my earnings . In 1914 , lol , if my Family had had an auto , only thing it would have gotten used for would be to arrive at Church on Sun morning . They should have prayed harder against thieving , socialist govt .

would you rather make $10 and pay no taxes or $1000 and pay 50% in taxes?

 

[PRB]

I am actually fine with where I am now Zip , but I would not want to be a young person today , I seriously doubt the majority of them will ever attain what I was able to or even hit the " median " in the future. Where , in my time , most could have if they were just willing to work hard enough .

I'm still not seeing this claim in numbers or actual examples.

What's wrong with being a young person today other than having unrealistic expectations, being lied to go to college, being peer pressured into debt and dreaming they'll never be in trouble? All those things are choices and delusions which can be cured if you just had the right information, or right parenting.

What was you "able to attain" that you're challenging young people to achieve? What is the "median" you are speaking of that you're so uncertain people can get to?

There's plenty of jobs today people today can still take, they just think they're too good for it, and no thanks to government which subsidizes unemployment that helps discourage hard work, but no less, people who want to achieve good things still can (but people who just want to survive, can do it much easier).

 

[Origanalist]

In 1900-1950, a million dollars won't get you a touch screen computer or a cellphone.

Today, you can take your gadget and for less than $10k, you can settle in a country of your choice. (wait, which one is it? are there no freer countries? or there are and you just don't want to move there?)

So today still gives you more options.

Oh bullshit. What country are you going to settle in for less than ten thousand? I can't go into Canada, and I don't want to move to Mexico or South America because our war on drugs (freedom!) has rendered much of it rather inhospitable. Please give examples of which countries you are talking about.

 

[Origanalist]

would you rather make $10 and pay no taxes or $1000 and pay 50% in taxes?

Why are those the only choices?

 

[Danke]

No Internet trolls back then...

 

[acptulsa]

No Internet trolls back then...

Seriously.

I don't know why anyone's still feeding them. Honestly. No one with an open mind is ever going to read this silliness this far. We pwned them sufficiently long, long before it came down to, 'You shouldn't turn back the clock forty years because life sucked one hundred years ago (not coincidentally, considering Wilson was trying to fasttrack us into socialism one hundred years ago--and 97 years ago he succeeded).

I suggest we let the trolls play with each other. They don't seem to need our help.

 

[specsaregood]

//

 

[otherone]

I keep hearing, over and over, mostly from conservatives, that somehow life was better in the past. I still don't understand why, to me, most of the arguments are based on cherry picking the favorite traits of the individual

I'm getting bored. This is too easy.

 

[PRB]

Why are those the only choices?

Because it's my question, but even if it wasn't, it's an example of what you're complaining about.

 

[PRB]

Life was better because we didn't have the capability of drones?

Where were these people in the past? Living in perfect harmony?

They're not everywhere, every day, they only put on riot gear when they fear riots. They gear is only as advanced as civilians make them. So the flip side is, civilians also have access to most of the same equipment.

I'm getting bored. This is too easy.

Sorry, can't see what's wrong with these. What's the city in the bottom picture?

 

[Zippyjuan]

Life was better because we didn't have the capability of drones?

Where were these people in the past? Living in perfect harmony?



They're not everywhere, every day, they only put on riot gear when they fear riots. They gear is only as advanced as civilians make them. So the flip side is, civilians also have access to most of the same equipment.



Sorry, can't see what's wrong with these. What's the city in the bottom picture?

100 years ago was the start of WWI. In terms of death and destruction as a percent of the globe, the most destructive war in history. And that was done "up close and personal" with small arms- not mass killers like bombs and rockets and drones. Heck- even airplanes weren't used much since they had only recently been invented. 37 MILLION deaths- about 1.5% of the total population in the entire world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties

That would compare to over 100 MILLION deaths today allowing for population growth. What are now easily preventable diseases were the #1 killers of people back then- medicines helped seriously reduce most of them which has helped add about 30 years to life expectancy since. Obesity may be a problem today but back then it was starvation. We have too much food today compared to too little back then.

Then we can add the 50- 100 million who died during the 1918 flu pandemic. Yeah- life was so much better back then!

http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/...-war-conflict/statistics-on-violent-conflict/

Since there’s no world war or major conflict going on at the moment – in fact, in 2013 there were no declared inter-state wars ongoing – the number of war deaths is relatively limited nowadays. Only about 10% of all violent deaths occur as a result of armed conflicts. Whereas more than a million people lose their lives to violence each year, about half of those are suicides and a third are homicides. From 1950 to 2007, there was an average of 148,000 global battlefield deaths per year; from 2008 to 2012, the average was 28,000.

Of course, it wasn’t always like that. Worldwide, deaths caused directly by war-related violence in the 21st century have averaged about 55,000 per year, just over half of what they were in the 1990s, a third of what they were during the Cold War, and a hundredth of what they were in World War II. That is without correction for population growth.

Since the beginning of recorded history, around 3600 BC, over 14.500 major wars have killed about four billion people, a number that not so long ago equaled the whole of humanity. The wars that took place in the 20th century killed around 200 million people; in the Second World War, 66 million died, compared to 15 million in the First. However, if you count the 50 to 100 million deaths from the 1918 flu pandemic – facilitated by close troop quarters and massive troop movements – WWI is the deadliest conflict in world history.

Since the Second World War, there have been on average about 30 armed conflicts ongoing every year. 90% of casualties in these conflicts have been civilians, compared to 50% in the Second World War and 10% in the First. 128 armed conflicts since 1989 have resulted in at least 250,000 deaths each year.

 

[otherone]

Life was better because we didn't have the capability of drones?

Where were these people in the past? Living in perfect harmony?



They're not everywhere, every day, they only put on riot gear when they fear riots. They gear is only as advanced as civilians make them. So the flip side is, civilians also have access to most of the same equipment.



Sorry, can't see what's wrong with these. What's the city in the bottom picture?

It's Detroit. A casualty of advanced economic engineering.

Death and misery are a part of life, friend. The state, no matter what you believe, can't stop it. It only exacerbates it. And you are a party to it.
Life was better before the good intentions of "society".
I'd prefer starving as a free man than existing as a well-fed prisoner.

 

[otherone]

Where were these people in the past? Living in perfect harmony?

 

[Carson]

Some may argue we are not so bad off because of the counterfeiting.

I can't help but wonder where the world would be now if the honest man and his dollar had of ruled the last several decades.

I see nothing good coming if we allow the criminals to continue us down the road to ruin. The sky is the limit if power to the honest dollar and the men that hold them is ever restored.

 

[Carson]

I enjoy hearing stories about my late father in law; whom I never met but seems to have been an interesting person.

One such story told me last night made me think of this thread. He was an avid ocean fisherman and my wife told me how he used to make his own lures. For many years he would buy a bunch of plastics of any color imaginable and melt them down in the garage and pour them into molds. He taught his daughter to help him and she would pick colors and they would make worms and jigs and such one weekend and go fishing the next. She said he bought her a turtle mold just to make plastic turtles as toys. Then one day the govt outlawed the type of plastic he used and he spent the mornings cursing instead of molding...

I had a dream about fishing the other night.

In it we were using fishing line that was a courser version of jute cord. The lure was made of the same cord but was a simple crude 3D shape of a crawdad. What I mean by crude is it wasn't filled in like your Father-In-Laws lures but just the line knotted at points to give an impression and shape of a crawdad. Like the body was four or five strings coming together at the head and the tall. Like an outline.

Anyway the trout were huge. We were fishing real close up. I remember looking down over an over hanging rock slab with a big trout holding. I could see his gills working and his mouth breathing.

 

[PRB]

100 years ago was the start of WWI. In terms of death and destruction as a percent of the globe, the most destructive war in history.

Yeah, but we were fighting them out there so we don't have to fight them in here. Plus we paid less taxes and there was no internet to distract us. People lived every day like it was their last, life was scarce and death was common, that's what makes life GOOD.

And that was done "up close and personal" with small arms- not mass killers like bombs and rockets and drones. Heck- even airplanes weren't used much since they had only recently been invented. 37 MILLION deaths- about 1.5% of the total population in the entire world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties

Yeah, we used to fight like actual men. Today we use remote drones like kids who are afraid of fire. We've been demasculated by liberal pacifism. I miss those days where fighting always came with a risk and price.

That would compare to over 100 MILLION deaths today allowing for population growth. What are now easily preventable diseases were the #1 killers of people back then- medicines helped seriously reduce most of them which has helped add about 30 years to life expectancy since. Obesity may be a problem today but back then it was starvation. We have too much food today compared to too little back then.

Then we can add the 50- 100 million who died during the 1918 flu pandemic. Yeah- life was so much better back then!

http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/...-war-conflict/statistics-on-violent-conflict/

YES, life was still better, because we paid less taxes!!! Starvation was only a problem if you were lazy because it was never illegal to run your own business or own their own farm, today people are obese because the government is forcing them to eat HFCS and GMO.

 

[PRB]

It's Detroit. A casualty of advanced economic engineering.

The flip side to Detroit being impoverished is that it's a new land of opportunity and cheap housing.

Ok, so please let me get this straight, is it a GOOD OR BAD THING that housing is cheaper in Detroit?

When you can sell your house (or land) you saved for 20 years for a profit due to housing prices rising, is that GOOD OR BAD?

When housing bubble pops, or when cheap loans die, leaving houses and land cheap for more people to afford it, is that GOOD OR BAD?

When housing prices increase so less people can afford it, and there's only white collar workers and rich people in a city or neighborhood, leading to less crime, less minorities, less drug usage, is that GOOD OR BAD?

Death and misery are a part of life, friend. The state, no matter what you believe, can't stop it.

The state can certainly increase it, can't it?

It only exacerbates it. And you are a party to it.
Life was better before the good intentions of "society".
I'd prefer starving as a free man than existing as a well-fed prisoner.

So what's stopping you from moving into a forest or some place the government can't be bothered to bother you?

 

[otherone]

The flip side to Detroit being impoverished is that it's a new land of opportunity and cheap housing.

Ok, so please let me get this straight, is it a GOOD OR BAD THING that housing is cheaper in Detroit?

When you can sell your house (or land) you saved for 20 years for a profit due to housing prices rising, is that GOOD OR BAD?

When housing bubble pops, or when cheap loans die, leaving houses and land cheap for more people to afford it, is that GOOD OR BAD?

It appears that you are saying that it is a good thing that some may profit off of others misery?
If I own shares of a drone-producing company, is it a good or bad thing?

 

[PRB]

It appears that you are saying that it is a good thing that some may profit off of others misery?

People profit every chance they get, whether it's off another's misery or happiness. So, answer my questions, thanks.

If I own shares of a drone-producing company, is it a good or bad thing?

Neither, if you profit, good for you, but if you don't, you invested your own money, neither are my business unless I come in contact with one or I am in the business.

You show me a picture of Detroit, which you know to be an exception (casualty), as an example of how life is worse today. So I'm interested in your reasoning.