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Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

People forgot or simply don't realize how much better life was just 3-4 decades ago (in terms of nutrition, access to knowledge, clean water, material wealth, housing costs, tuition costs, healthcare costs, jobs).

In advanced western countries that is. If you compare Nigeria from 2000 to Nigeria today, sure, maybe...

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What? Access to knowledge was better 3-4 decades ago? You're telling me that people had better access to knowledge in 1986 than they do today?

Infant mortality was 10.4 per 1,000 live births in 1986 in the US. It was 5.5 I'm 2023.

Life expectancy was 74. Now it's 78.

The crime rate peaked in the US in 1991.

Life isn't perfect now. Housing needs to be a lot more affordable, for one. University costs in the US are insane, for another.

But to paint this as no progress? Come on.

> People forgot or simply don't realize how much better life was just 3-4 decades ago

Are you just saying this thinking no one will ask you to back it up with data? Care to quantify what "so much better" actually means?

Better job prospects for more people, lower inflation, cheaper healthcare, cheaper housing (actually affordable housing), less obesity, better school programs, more distributed, less controled, and less corporate internet and web, higher fertility rates, less clouds of war and civil tension, more political legitimacy and better political climate, better nutricion (official stats show obesity at an all time high and rising - despite all the health influencer slop), less impacted rural areas and small towns, and many other stats besides. And a more stable global order too.

Most of those apply both here in Europe and the US.

And that's without even getting into more subjective QoL stuff, from cultural production to the widespread depression and the loneliness epidemic.

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