Are We Better Off Now?

Do you think we are better off then we were some 200-300 years ago?

Pros: Sure the medicene we have is alot better & we can travel to the far ends of the world & back. We can flip a switch & we have light, heat, Ac. We can watch whats going on in other parts of the world, we can find out about anything just by logging into our computers.


Cons: We no lnger seen to spend time with our loved ones the TV & the computer takes time away from those we love. Yes we can fly around the world & back. However, because we're able to travel so easily overpopulation has got worse. Famlies no long sit around the table & talk about thier day. A village would have to work toghether to surive, these days we fight each other out of greed. We bulid house because people are being born by the thousands everyday. Because we have to keep buliding somany house we have to tear up even more of the earth. The cars, trucks, buses,etc we travel in have a huge effect on the environment.

Thats my take one it..... What say you?

I suspect the housing boom is over. Medicine is good to a point. Now we can preserve life well past the point that there is any quality left. Just look at all the nursing homes today. If you want to see one of the results of our medical system just walk through a nursing home. It isn't pretty.

We have an unbelievable choice in foods today, and we have not done too well with that. (Obesity and other food related ailments) Mostly because of greed we can not trust the food supply. I have seen the produce being raised and picked in Mexico and you do not want to hear about that.

We have traded some really important things to have this lifestyle and may find the cost was too high!

Then again we may be dragged back into the 20's and 30's where medical is rationed and we eat what is available locally or what we can raise and maybe very little. Should that happen, something I read in Mother Earth News comes to mind. IE: "In truly hard times, the only safe place to live is over one tank full of gasoline from a large city." That is pretty hard to do any more.

This does not really belong in this post but should truly hard times come, how far are you willing to go to protect your family's welfare. Can you watch your children go hungry because someone stole the food they were going to consume?

It certainly is a thread to encourage one to think.

Slàinte,    

Patch   

You know, I think the worst thing ever created, well, one of them, are video games, I know I sound old and cranky , but, when my siblings and I were young we would be outside all day long, and could barely come home to eat, we would be outside til dark when are parents would make us come home, now, you go down the streets and their desserted, not a kid in sight, their either watching a movie or playing video games, you see kids now and their all hollow eyed and pale, it's weird.
I have a friend who has a pool for her kids, a great tree house, huge yard, it abutts a forest, and the kids are NEVER outside, so, in my opinion, I think kids are worse off then they were even 20 years ago.
And as far as the envioment, its a mess, people keep building bigger and bigger houses, cutting all the tree's down.I think the world is a mess.
Sure, medicine is alot better now, thats one thing, but, right now, thats the only thing I can think of thats better.
People have way too many cars, it's ridiculous, I even do, but we got rid of our SUV.
I hope I didnt get off track here, sorry.

Hi norwood1026,
My opinion may shock some but it is a reality. People don't die anymore and medecine plays a great part in it.

Are we better off now then 200 or 300 years ago? I would say yes in the way of facility to have everything you need around you.
If one needs something either to cook or doing anything around the house, one just take the car and goes to the store to get it.

Our lifestyle has become too easy. Fast food, cell phone, shopping mall open 24/7, people have become quite materialists since the industrialisation era.

Hard physical work is a rare thing these days, everything is computerize , people who watch t.v don't even have to get up anymore same for listening the radio so in a way the body is geeting older but at the same time it is not worn.

Also with television and all, people tends to think that we are immortal and have grown afraid of death. To me we are better in the way of living but on the other hand I'd say we are not because the values and principles of life have disappeared in many ways. And thus humanity has become cold.
LOA

Yep, I pretty much agree with you LOA.

Going back two hundred years there were a lot less people using the rescources. Today we are "populating ourselves out of energy and food. That is self limiting!!

Slàinte,     Patch   

Patch, your correct people take & take these days back then people had some sence of balance with nature & they know to give what they took. Some people these days think somehow we'll be ok & that we can get away without caring where it's coming from.

I fear those are the ones least likely to survive if they are wrong. Some of us will work hard to help the rest but that too will be dangerous.

Slàinte,    

Patch   

Sadly sooner or later it might come down to everyone for themselves...

Sadly sooner or later it might come down to everyone for themselves...

Should it come to that, My plan is to gather my family around me at whatever seems to be the safest place and make a stand. My youngest Daughter does not like to talk about it but God help anyone who would try to cause harm to her children!

Slàinte,    

Patch   

While they may not be historically accurate I still prefer the atmoshere and the way people treat each other at Renaissance faires alot more than the mundane world. So aside from the sickness, the stench from the sewage in the streets, and animal droppings everywhere I probbaly was born in the wrong time. Its refreshing to see actually craftsmen building something with their hands rather than watch some dumb machine pound out several hundred Hannah Montana plastic mugs a minute that nobody really needs. We have lost a lot especially in matters of honor and grace.

Are we better off now vs 200 years ago? I wasn't around so I can only speak for my perspective which has been warped by time. In some ways it's better, others worse. the above mentioned health care is one. We have instant international communications, and don't have to wait 10 years to hear back from friends and loved ones overseas. We have a wider selection of foods available, we don't have as much trouble with food spoilage, we have better warnings of severe weather, and I wonder if we might be polluting less now.

On the other hand, I agree with ctbard, but it's not just kids that need to get out and play, it's adults too. We are losing our connection with nature and with ourselves. We as a society are interacting less and less on a personal basis and more and more in an environment where we never see each other. I also see cities needlessly stretching out, a blight on the land. Also, the government is stepping in more and more as people seem to be abandoning common sense. Are we really any safer now after 9/11 than we were when it wasn't abnormal for a young boy to go out hunting *with a GUN, and heaven forbid a knife*, or even 20 years ago when riding in the back of a pickup truck was a summer treat? There's good and bad to be said for both.

In my opinion, all of the above comments, (for the most part) are true, for my take on it. I’ll take reality over vertical reality (any time). Perhaps the Unabomber and Dr. Kevorkian will turnout to be the real heroes, in the end.

when riding in the back of a pickup truck was a summer treat? There's good and bad to be said for both.

I agree with Aaediwen...I remember those days when my parents would load us kids up in the back of our pickup truck, (5 of us by the way)Mom at the wheel, Dad drinking his brew and off we'd go to the swimming hole. Now there's no way I'd even think about letting my grandchildren ride in the back of a truck, there's too many drivers out there on alcohol, drugs and texting on their cell phones. I do like all the creature comforts, but really would like better morals for society as a whole. I know that there has always been problems with alcohol and drugs, when I hear about a 5th grader being arrested for smoking pot at school and he gets it from a classmate, there is definetly something wrong with that picture. When I was growing up the only drugs in our house was an occasional RX prescription that was used in the way it was intended and aspirin. Wow, has that ever changed and I'm 54 (but that's a secret)
I'm glad that I didn't have to choose what time period I was going to be born in.

In my youth, doctors made house calls. I was diagnosed with appendicitis at home. I got a shot of penicillin, which was new, with the biggest syringe I have ever seen. I was to stay in bed and my parents kept "hot" water bottles full of ice on my stomach around the clock. Three more shots of penicillin and I got well.30 or 40 years earlier I probably would not have survived.

22 years later, same symptoms. 3 hours later I had no appendix.

At 8 and 7, I and my cousin had a 22 rifle to share at my Grandfathers. The rules were given to both and I knew if we got caught breaking them I would suffer because I was the "oldest." Note: this was unsupervised after at age 8 and watching Grand dad hunt for two years. At the same time 2 years experience with a BB gun.

My Grandmother liked "pussy willow branches if I messed up. My Grandfather's preference was something a little heavier. I learned early in life that society had rules and I had d-mn well better follow them.

Wouldn't Child Protective Services have a fit over the above today?

I too rode in the back of a pickup truck and home from the post office on the "running board" of the car. I drove a tractor (of sorts) at age 4 on our farm. At about 6 I walked two miles along a busy highway to the slaughter house where my father worked. I had my first taste of "Twist Chewing Tobacco" there. It was a long trip home that day.

We are all the product of our youth.

If the medical expertise were there I would not mind going back 100 or 200 years.

Slàinte,    

Patch