"Since the 1970's, not much as changed." Oh, really?

"But human life expectancy hasn't changed at all, really..." Since 1970 US life expectancy at birth has increased about 5-7 years: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5414a6.htm

"travel is still expensive (though cheaper, of course, but not by much)" Since 1970, roundtrip airfare between NYC and London has dropped, on average, from $2600 to $600: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/airfare...

There's still a lot of room for improvement, but since 1970 a lot has improved.