Ha ha, I came in just to say ‘now’, because I would miss modern toilets. Well, just plain modern conveniences. Running water? Quick transportation? Aw yeah.
No kidding. I don’t even want to go back in time enough to lose my smartphone.
Probably the 80s.
Early 1970’s, either San Diego CA or Santa Barbara CA. I like showers, I’m tired of snow, neither of these areas had become impossible to move to yet. Medical care not hugely different in many ways than now, and much more affordable. Disneyland still has E-tickets and an off-season, I get about a decade of post BCP, pre-AIDS relaxation, and the beaches are all pretty uncrowded. I can be the weird old lady at a whoe bunch of concerts I want to see, invest in certain stocks to maintain the comfortable lifestyle, and buy a 1971 VW Beetle new off the lot.
Anywhere anytime? Based on my quick search looks like Hawaii got high speed internet for the first time in 2001, so giving it a couple of years settle in I’ll go for 2004 on a small beachfront acreage on the south shore of Kauai.
But there wasn’t much on the internet in 2004 that you’d need real high-speed for!
(Okay, there was enough; you won’t believe how much I paid for ISDN in the late 1990’s.)
I agree with ancient Rome, but only if I had a time machine. I would teleport myself back with a flamethrower and pretend I’m a god to keep the pesky trojans away. I’d also time travel with a ton of peppercorns and be the richest jerk there. 
Now. Ask me again in 10 years and I’ll say ‘now’ again.
I sometimes think I’d have done well in medieval Europe, but frankly that comes from a more romantic fantasy Ren-fest vision of how things were than reality.
Definitely now. I’m a gadget junkie, and to take away my iphone, HDTV, internet, cameras, etc…where’s the fun in that?
The Bell Époch, either in Paris or Vienna. Some of the most beautiful art and music and fashion came from that period, along with many technological advances.
But I’m not leaving the 21st century without air conditioning.
Right before my spaceship blew up and started life evolving on this wretched rock.
Basically any time period after 1950+ as long as I can live my comfortable life on beach front property on the North Shore of Oahu.
Aloha.
Right now. As a lesbian, any other point in history would be truly shit for me. It’s not always that brilliant even now.
My idea of “comfort” largely revolves around modern technology. I wouldn’t want to give up the Internet, painkillers, antibiotics, toilet paper, air conditioning, clean water, or any of the other innumerable comforts of the modern world. I wouldn’t want to live a century or two ago even if I was made God-King of Earth; no amount of wealth or power will get you things no one knows how to make.
Right now. It’s pretty good even though I don’t live quite a “comfortable” life (you mean comfortable meaning funds right?), so having the means would just be icing on the cake.
Add me to the ‘now’ camp. I like technology. I’d hate to even return to a pre-Youtube era.
I think I like my dad’s era of life; he was born in 1931, too young for WWII, served during Korea but didn’t get sent overseas. Lived the full of his life with wonderful opportunity and is alive & well today with the support of great modern medicine. He will turn 80 in August.
He enjoys modern technology about as much as I care to (big HDTV, good computers, etc.) He suffers from macular degeneration so he needs big print to read and shouldn’t drive, but he enjoys books on tape, gardens, and in general lives well. He hits the treadmill 5+ miles a day and dropped 60 lbs last year and is in better shape than he was 20 years ago.
He made sound financial decisions long ago and retired not wealthy but safely, and lives a good life. My mom is alive too and they still enjoy each other.
For me, I am concerned that our personal, national and world’s financial future is suspect. I am worried that my later years will be poor, and mind you I have a good paying job, it’s just everyone gets a good chunk of my paycheck. I feel like I’m paying for everyone else’s problems, and I have enough of my own I would like to take care of.
I am horrified by what I think my children’s future is going to be like. And there is no amount of iPads, Facebook or electric cars that make me think life will be a real joy for them. And looking at history, the possibilities of social upheaval and devastation beyond my ability to comprehend lurk in the shadows.
And of course, all of these observations are based on the clarity of 20/20 hindsight, and are in the end meaningless. I am here today and now, so I guess I’ll just have to do my best.
Yeah, came in to say Belle-Epoque as well. I’m a Jacques Tardi fan, been in love with the Paris of that time ever since I discovered his comics.
- I was 15 at the time, and there were a million bands making awesome music that I was too young to see live.
This. Being a woman in any past society would make me want to stab someone in the throat.