# Will I live better than Bill Gates did? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 20, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224 "2011-10-20T05:47:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/1 "2011-10-20T05:47:00Z")
Inspired by “[Do I live better than JP Morgan did](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=628447)?” Do you think the life of the average person in a developed country in 2111 would be better than the life of a multi-billionaire today? Use whatever definition of better that you see fit. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/2 "2011-10-20T06:24:59Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/3 "2011-10-20T06:29:42Z")
It’s impossible to predict/answer. After all, JP Morgan could have never imagined in his wildest dreams most of the things we take for granted every day. True story: last week my wife came down from the attic with a Polaroid 600 camera. When she tried to find film for it (why she wanted film for it I’m still confused about) she was shocked to determine it was not available in most stores. The funny part is when she said: “I just bought that camera in 1998!”. Bwahahaha!:p:p:p Technology works off itself. Barring nuclear wars, a middle class person 100 years from now SHOULD live better than any of us. Especially a square like Bill Gates!!! ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/4 "2011-10-20T09:06:36Z")
since getting laid in college or high school seems to be the high point of most male’s self esteem in the last 100 years, I’d say the question is moot. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/5 "2011-10-20T09:32:24Z")
We don’t know what the future is going to be like; in a hundred years for all we know there won’t be any developed countries any more. In a hundred years the average person might be worse off than JP Morgan or even the average person in his time much less Bill Gates; they might be looking back to the good old days where famine wasn’t the norm and where you could go out in the sun without risking blindness and skin cancer. They might be scrabbling though radioactive ruins looking for rats to eat. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/6 "2011-10-20T14:28:38Z")
**Der Trihs** : Why risk suffering through all that pain, take a shotgun and quit while you’re ahead. If you define ‘better off’ as ‘has more power over others’ then No. Else Of course we will be lightyears beyond our wildest dreams. Medical science is just starting to understand genetics. The internet is only 20 years old, google how cars looked after 20 years development. Remember Startrek? turns out real communicators look much better than [this](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/20090704-1971_StarTrekTOSCommunicatorReplica.jpg/250px-20090704-1971_StarTrekTOSCommunicatorReplica.jpg). That was someones idea of a future far away. That was 40 year ago. Your car, the one you drive every day and think is a POS is actually faster, safer, more economical than a 1960’s supercar. 100 years ago central heating looked as advanced as nuclear fission, nevermind central air. We eat fruit from africa, drink coffee from all over the world, have an opinion regarding french vs. australian wine. Discuss our future with people on the other side of the planet while shopping. And you think you can even compare your life with someone from 100 year ago or into the future? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/7 "2011-10-20T14:35:06Z")
I have a great Justin Timberlake analogy for this topic … but I think I’ll leave it alone. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/8 "2011-10-20T15:25:24Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#): > > **Der Trihs** : Why risk suffering through all that pain, take a shotgun and quit while you’re ahead. Because I can do that anytime (well, I’d need to buy a shotgun first), I have a good chance of dying before anything like that happens anyway, and I didn’t say I was certain anything like that _would_ happen. That in fact is the point I was making, the uncertainty of the future. > [@The\_Librarian](#): > > Your car, the one you drive every day and think is a POS is actually faster, safer, more economical than a 1960’s supercar. > 100 years ago central heating looked as advanced as nuclear fission, nevermind central air. We eat fruit from africa, drink coffee from all over the world, have an opinion regarding french vs. australian wine. Those and many other modern things are built on resources that are running out, and we show minimal interest in doing anything beyond lip service about it. At the very best I expect an economic and environmental disaster where we spend decades trying to shore up our collapsing society when all those cheap nonrenewable resources run out, the seas rise, and the environment degrades. In a hundred years our descendants could easily be stuck eating rationed food from the few surviving croplands after the fresh water ran out and the seas rose. Or they could be dead in resource wars. Or they could all be uploaded into computers or exterminated by rogue AIs. We don’t really know. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/9 "2011-10-20T15:29:24Z")
I think the world will be in deep shit. Already, US corn and soybean production is down, thanks to global warming. Democracy in America is in decline (first try to prevent the poor from voting and then overwhelm the rest with negative advertising paid for by the 1%, meanwhile destroy the public school system and make universities unattainable for any but the wealthy) and is unlikely to recover. Thank, among other things, the judicial wing of the Republican Party (aka the Supreme Court) which gave us George Bush and then legislated that limits on campaign donations were unconstitutional. (Who says the Supreme Court doesn’t legislate?) As the world population heads to 8 billion and beyond, I expect more and more trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/10 "2011-10-20T23:24:11Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I have a great Justin Timberlake analogy for this topic … but I think I’ll leave it alone. Please explain ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/11 "2011-10-21T01:38:23Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I think the world will be in deep shit. Already, US corn and soybean production is down, thanks to global warming. Democracy in America is in decline (first try to prevent the poor from voting and then overwhelm the rest with negative advertising paid for by the 1%, meanwhile destroy the public school system and make universities unattainable for any but the wealthy) and is unlikely to recover. Thank, among other things, the judicial wing of the Republican Party (aka the Supreme Court) which gave us George Bush and then legislated that limits on campaign donations were unconstitutional. (Who says the Supreme Court doesn’t legislate?) As the world population heads to 8 billion and beyond, I expect more and more trouble. The green revolution has helped feed countless people, and the countries that starve today are due to problems of distribution-North Korea and Somalia for example. The grave problem today in Europe and East Asia is a _declining_ and aging population. As for the political ideas:-Public schools will not ever be destroyed in this country. At worst (for liberals anyways) the Department of Education gets abolished and education is in the hands of the local communities and the UHC bill also helped streamline student loans -The Supreme Court an extension of the Republican Party?!?! One hopefully realizes it has ruled against the Bush administration numerous times and the campaign donation liberalization benefits labour unions also ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/12 "2011-10-21T01:47:51Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Please explain Read the link in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/13 "2011-10-21T02:33:10Z")
Yeah probably. But it depends on how you define better. To me having better physical and mental health, more fulfilling hobbies, etc. is important and more important than a larger house. A person in 2111 won’t have a house nearly as large as Gates, or his collections of cars or art. But they will likely have a much healthier mind and body. Plus they will have far more self awareness (in the sense that technology will help us understand our own wants, needs and desires and find ways to fulfill them. Technology will become much better at comprehending our moods and wants and finding ways to help us achieve them) and ability to achieve their own goals in life. So yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-live-better-than-bill-gates-did/600224/14 "2011-10-21T11:38:58Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > The green revolution has helped feed countless people, and the countries that starve today are due to problems of distribution-North Korea and Somalia for example. And the cheap water and petrochemical fertilizers that made it possible are running out.