Some ways better, some ways worse.
I guess it all evens out.
China is more polluted but it’s also more industrialized. So can one describe China as objectively “worse”?
Obviously resources is a concern. Especially as the population continues to increase and countries like India and China continue to modernize.
I’d say somewhat better. When I was born in '96, Clinton was in the Oval Office, the US economy was in a boom, and there seemed to few clouds in the sky. However, despite 9/11 and the recession I think the lifting out of poverty of millions of people in places like China, India, and Brazil along with technological progress and domestic reforms in the US outweighs them.
Technologically, of course, the world is a better place than in my youth. The civil rights situation in the United States is certainly better. But I had to vote for things being worse now because of global warming, which I do not believe we will be able to get a hold on as a society.
I’m fifty.
When I was a kid, the Chicago River caught on fire and Lake Erie was considered a dead lake. There were wildfires in parts of the US. We threw away household chemicals with abandon. DDT was still legal in the US.
Today, you can swim in Lake Erie. We still have wildfires. We are getting better about what goes in the trash. DDT was made illegal in the US. We worry about global warming. We’re still using internal combustion engines in our cars.
As a kid, even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, most Americans lived in geographically and socially segregated places. Casual racism was pretty common.
Today, we have a POTUS who is of mixed race.
As a kid, the closest that I could hope for to be president of a large corporation that I, as a female, could likely become was a secretary to the CEO.
Today, the CFO of my company is a woman.
As a kid, we had a B&W TV that you had to change between the three channels available by getting up out of your chair and twisting a knob. Our home’s only phone was hardwired into the kitchen wall. Calculators cost $$$ and were not permitted to be used at school. Our family’s one camera was a Kodak 126 Instamatic. A computer took up a space of about two city blocks.
Now, I carry a phone / TV / computer / alarm clock / camera / calculator / mini computer most places I go. It fits in the little pocket designed for the purpose in my purse.
As a kid, there was still an Iron Curtain where communist regimes flourished. Latin America had the banana republics. Africa still had some colonies, although self-government was beginning to take hold. South Africa was under apartheid. The US was involved in an insane war in SE Asia.
Today, communism has fallen in Europe. Latin America has several governments pretty much run by drug cartels. Africa has some horrible dictatorships. South African apartheid is history, although there is still a long way to go for equality. The US still has troups in Afghanistan.
When I was a kid, a lot of the men who farmed were missing fingers or other limbs from accidents. Insulin shock was a common danger to most diabetics, who were pretty much insulin dependent. Cancer of almost any kind was a death sentence.
Today, you rarely see the limb loss in farming communities that you used to. Safety measures and the ability to reattatch and reconstruct hands, legs and the like has come a long way. Loss of the family farm from the ensuing medical bills is another thing though. Diabetes is much more manageable than it was even thirty years ago. The ability to afford the treatment for it still sucks though. Cancer no longer has to be the death sentence it once was in most cases. Going bankrupt to afford the treatment is a very likely probability though.
Some things are better, some worse but mostly just a different set of problems.
I was born in the 70s and the 70s sucked like sucking was its full time job and it was up for a promotion.
Everything is so much better now, the cars are reliable and look better. The architecture is no longer horrific. The food is so much better, ethnic food was either italian, mexican, or chinese. Now I can get Indian, Phillipino, West Indian, Afghan, Peruvian, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai. Plus the traditional foods like hamburgers and Pizza are now much better than they were. I never heard of Buffalo Wings until I was in high school and I had to make them myself. The only food that is worse is seafood, which is just as good but now more expensive.
Music is so much easier to get and listen to. I used to tape songs off the radio and had to try to time it so I did not record the DJ. Now I can listen to pretty much any song I want pretty much any time I want for 99 cents or free on youtube.
Computers used to be so slow and cumbersome, printers were so loud, the internet was worthless, and graphics were horrible. We used to willingly play Lemonade Stand, Combat, Pong, and text based games.
The Russians had thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at us and were actively trying to turn countries around the world communist. China was so poor, India was so poor and neither of them seemed to have any hope of being not poor. Half of Europe was under communism.
I could go on and on, the only thing worse today is youth fashion, tattoos, beards, and big holes in ears.
I think it’s sooooo much better for women.
I miss Pong.
StG