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Comment by thesagan | Hacker News Reader

“We are living longer and better lives compared to generations past”

I appreciate all your writing, but statistics show lifespans in the U.S. are declining and housing is out of reach for increasing populations. On a mass society level that means something is very wrong and has been for some time. (Lots of folks like to also blame drug use but those have been around for ages.)

I think you’re missing the big picture.

“No, the basic quality of life has risen to perfectly match your income.”

What? That sounds ideological.

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> I appreciate all your writing, but statistics show lifespans in the U.S. are declining

Living in Canada, my perspective is a bit different. We have not observed the drop in life expectancy that the US has. But then again, let's keep things in perspective. Even after the drops, life expectancy in the US is higher than even early 2000s, let alone 60s or 70s:

https://data.oecd.org/chart/5ccg

>> “No, the basic quality of life has risen to perfectly match your income.”

> What? That sounds ideological.

Not ideological. Maybe my phrasing was ambiguous, but that sentence was supposed to be a summary of what I expanded on for the rest of my comment.

If it is any consolation I've upvoted all you. I think in many ways things are better (I don't even think when I put stuff in my grocery basket, and I buy "expensive" humane stuff) but in many ways things are harder. Programmers are in a social class where certain goods are really expensive in either time or money or both and because housing is so out of reach for some people it just feels impossible to even get a downpayment.

I also really think that two forces have simultaneously make the west worse. First, we try to educate everyone in the same subjects until they're almost adults. It's dumb. The level of skill you can get working with wood or computers from the age of 5 just pales in comparison with what you can pickup at 18. There should be a baseline, absolutely, but there should also be a measurable amount of tailored specialization from a young age. The second thing that is making the west worse is an absolutism on thinking about rights around property. Car-centric cultures are so stupid and inefficient. Everyone builds their own pool. Everyone builds their own gym. Nobody is happy because we're all separated from each other.

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