That's what William Gibson was saying in the early 80s about 2020.
Sure living standard is higher (but with more inequality), most fields are more advanced now, but what's the true purpose if people feel more depressed and inclined to kill themselves?
How did you determine it was generally higher because it appears to be lower in much of Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa?
The "general state of the world today" is likely to be much better for billions of people than it was in the 80s, however. It's worth keeping that perspective in mind, IMO.
Edit: I've linked one slide deck I think will describe what I'm talking about a bit, but there are certainly more and better sources for this kind of information.
Maybe we can share some sources here as a way to better educate ourselves on this topic?
https://slides.ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-food-provision/...
If you’re an average Chinese citizen, your life has probably improved dramatically. The auto mechanic down the street is struggling though since newer cars are basically unrepairable.
The majority of brand new cars that the average American is buying is still an ICE-powered automobile that’s nearly as serviceable as the old ones, sometimes requiring more advanced diagnostics tools, but far safer and more reliable.
Life in the United States was better for most Americans in the 80's than it is now. That was the beginning of the decoupling of productivity from pay, and it has been ongoing ever since.
https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
It's ok to both acknowledge the developmental progress of the rest of the world and lament the backsliding of the US.
What I am not happy about is all of us, all 8 billion of us, being able to afford everything we can and hoard useless electronics and plastic doo-dads, waste a ton of resources and live an excessive life. But, "We in the west have it so they should also" is a controversial take on this.
We as Americans waste a lot of resources. That shouldn't be the role model for others.
When billions of people couldn't buy food and don't have clean water to drink, cries of, "But I'm not maximally benefitting from my own productivity increases!" come across as relatively unimportant.
The phrase that caught my eye was, "the general state of the world today is worse off." I don't think that meshes with observed reality over the past 40 years for the humans living on this planet, if you're not white, affluent, straight and American.