As for me I wouldn’t say so currently as I was born in 1996 and the world’s economy and political instability is definately worse than in 1996. But I do think the world’s long-term trends are improving.
1990 to 2000 World nominal GDP: 10,033.659 billion USD.
2010 to 2016 (projected); 28,664.160 billion USD.
2000 to 2010: 30,694.784 billion USD.
So we’re marginally worse than the aughties, but substantially improved over the 1990s (which is where I believe 1996 falls).
I lived through 1996 as an adult. We’ve never had it better. But of course if you look at your own neighborhood and see an abandoned house, that can only mean the rest of the world is worse off, right? It ain’t so. There’s a whole world out there that’s only getting better and better.
I don’t think there is one answer: it depends on the criteria.
Born in 1963. The Berlin Wall is gone, the air raid drills are over, China is no longer North Korea writ large, the air and water are cleaner (in the US and Europe, anyway) – so many terrible things are gone that the terrible things of the present seem small by comparison.
Born in late sixties.
- No cold war.
- Cleaner city air (cleaner gasoline, more natural gas, less coal).
- Internet.
There’s no simple yes/no answer to the question.
It’s better in some ways, worse in others.
It’s hard to say. I was born in 1972 so the fact that we aren’t scrounging through the ruins of a post-nuclear wasteland is a step up from where we thought we would be when I was a teenager.
The world is a very different place from when I was a kid. In the 70s and 80s, the world was split mostly along idealogical lines between democracy and freedom in the West (USA, NATO) and communist oppression in the East (USSR, Warsaw Pact). We were the good guys and the Soviets were the bad guys. But since the end of the Cold War, the world has become a much more fragmented place. In many ways, this is a good thing. The economic rise of China and India means a better standard of living for billions of people. But it also raises issues of resource availability and global economic change. The Arab Spring uprisings have the potential to lift millions out of political oppression, but it could also represent a rise in Islamic fundamentalist states, like the Iranian revolution of the 70s.
There also has been growing economic uncertainty since the 70s and 80s. The tech boom of the mid to late 90s was largely a short-lived speculative bubble. Overall, the general mood for the past 20-30 years has been largely negative. Most people seem to feel that there are fewer and fewer opportunities for regular people to find decent jobs. That the cost of educating yourself so that you are eligible for those jobs is becoming astronomically high. That there is a growing rift between “haves” and “have nots”. And even if you do have a “decent job”, largely defined as a generic low to mid level employee with a large well-known corporation, you are still at a constant risk of arbitrary layoff with little chance to ever rise to any real level of responsibility while working for some insensitive, petty moron (as characterized in fiction such as Dilbert, Office Space, The Office, and so on).
Politically, the country appears to have sort of split along insane idealogical left wing / right wing lines. There is very little rational or thoughtful discussion of issues. Probably because that doens’t make very good fodder for the multitude of 24 hour news channels we now have. Now it’s all about bongo banging trust fund stoners in Zuccatti Park with their iPads and North Face tents bitching about corporate greed and uneducated white gun toting religious fanatics complaining about being oppressed by the laws of science and economics. Sure, there was political conflict in the 70s and 80s, but it is only recently that it seems to have taken such a giant departure from reality.
I was born in 1971. In South Africa. Not White.
Damn skippy, it’s improved.
Also, internet porn.
I was born shortly after World War II . . . not long after the liberation of the concentration camps, and just weeks after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
So I was born into a world that was reeling from recent events, more serious than anything we face today. It was also a world that condoned a great deal of racism, sexism and homophobia, much more than Western countries today. And it was the beginning of the Cold War. Back then, nobody would have guessed that there’d ever be an African-American President, a female Secretary of State, openly gay members of Congress, legal same-sex marriage in some states, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Not to mention people walking on the moon.
So yes, in spite of all of today’s problems, the world has in general improved.
I voted the unqualified Yes. Born in 1977. Okay, sure, the economy is in the same dumper as when I was born, but we have the internet now, the cold war is over, and disco is dead. Net improvement all around.
I was born in 1968. As a woman who knows that the sexual revolution is not yet over, I can’t imagine how miserable I’d have been before it started.
I was born not much longer ago than the OP, in 1990 and my answer is absolutely yes.
21 years later, we have an internet connecting people in cities all over the world. This means many new ways for people to stay in touch with their loved ones as well meet new friends who share their interests and ideas - very valuable for people who felt isolated in their immediate communities. It also means knowledge and information are spreading at an unprecedented rate and it’s much harder than ever before to keep it away from people, even in totalitarian regimes.
We have substantially improved medical treatment for many medical conditions including HIV/AIDS and influenza, and science has increased our knowledge of how to be healthy in our individual lives. Assistive technology for people who have trouble with mobility and/or communication on their own is vastly better than it was when I was born.
People are accepting of each other than we were 21 years ago: LGBT rights have improved substantially, with same-sex couples allowed to marry in many jurisdictions. More families are multicultural than ever before, and I just think in general people are more open to understanding other cultures than their own.
Some cool stuff is happening in the entertainment industry, with new technology providing much more opportunity for independent artists and small presses.
The Iron Curtain fell early in my life, releasing the tyrannical hold of so-called Communist leaders over Eastern Europe, and also allowing for better international dialogue. The increased prominence of the European Union has done the same. Also, I think the lives of people in a lot of developing countries in Asia are much, much better than they were when I was born.
Also before I was born Firefly didn’t exist. QED.
I was born in 1979.
On one hand. we have the internet now, which one of the greatest achievements of Man. Communications as a whole have vastly improved, to the point that two people on any two points on the Earth can communicate instantly. That is unprecedented. I can also look up, using my little world communication device, any snippet of information I want, instantly and regardless of how obscure it is. Incredible… such a search used to take years and you’d probably pick up scurvy along the way.
On the other, the good times had in the 20th century are over, and many in my generation are feeling pretty pessimistic about the future. The economy sucks. Corporations have us over a barrel with student loans, medical bills, and food and energy prices. No one has any real incentive to fix these problems and things aren’t likely to improve until after we’re dead. Nothing really interesting is going on like Woodstock or the invention of jazz or a man walking on the moon. Medical advancement seems to have plateaued – the big ills of the world are still out there and incurable: cancer, HIV/AIDS, and the common cold. Most new drugs are developed to combat first-world, white people diseases, such as heartburn, erectile dysfunction, and allergies, since that’s where the money is. Right now, the world seems very… stagnant.
In the long-term (i.e., the life of human civilization), I think we’ve taken a step forward. But in the short-term (i.e., my life), we’ve taken several steps back. I voted no.
I’d like to add that my own parents, who have six-figure salaries, can’t understand why I’m struggling.
Born in 1981. I voted unqualified yes. Yeah, the economic thing sucks right now, but things are changing for the better. Gay marriage was the first thing that came to mind. There’s new vaccines, more options for birth control. The internet. Et cetera.
1981, Ireland was a piss-poor backward violence-tinged mess. 2011 it’s still a mess but there’s less violence, we’re less backward, and even after all the shit that’s happened many of us are better off. The country is more diverse than it’s ever been. I have friends who’ve been on every continent. I think of air travel as mundane, something my parents never were able to. More of the world is connected to more people. Lots of things are worse, more things are better.
Born in 1961, so while I’m 15-16 years younger than panache45, I heartily agree with his/her post. I clearly remember much of the mid-late 60s when a lot of revolutions were beginning: there were cracks in the walls of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc, but those walls were still there. Still are, of course, but back then, they were a lot bigger than now.
Oh, a thousand times, yes.
Maybe.
I miss organized crime and the Cold War - so much easier than gangs and the War on Terror. (For one thing, we knew the difference between “terror” and “terrorism”.)
And I miss the Movements - Civll Rights, Environmental, Women’s. I just don’t see as much a sense of community.
Born in 1978. Yes.
In no particular order:
- Much smaller likelihood of global thermonuclear war;
- Wikipedia;
- Cars are much, much better; and
- Internet porn.
Will the next 33 years be better than the last 33? Hard to say. Things aren’t great right now but I’d still rather live in 2011 than 1978.
But… but… but 99% of us are occupying Wall Street and other parts of the country, right?
/me happy that I’m on a VPN right now.