I think it's just the current stage of capitalism. A lot of the products that meaningfully improve people's lives have been created so now it's more profitable for companies to just start rent seeking in every place they can.
Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
31–40 of 835 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#32I think you're way off base. It's called rosy retrospection, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosy_retrospection . As you already mentioned in your comments, you're judging the past disproportionately more positive that the present. If you really want to know if everything is declining, try measure it everyday for the next five years. For example, every day, rate your personal well being, track how (un)happy you are wit…
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It's quite possible not to be able to answer "did x happen" but to still be interested in the question "will x happen".
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#33I don't entirely disagree with you but I've experienced differently. In software, for example, I have seen precisely the opposite: there's been a lack of long term decision making. Instead of saving developer time overall there's a push to write it even if it is bad. Then it goes into production immediately and it becomes very difficult to get it fixed correctly
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#34Read Karl Marx, what we're seeing is basically what he described as the end state of capitalism. Everything gets shittier and shittier as costs go up and profits shrink. People and businesses are getting more desperate to prop up profit or make a buck. Everything suffers--worse products as costs are cut, worse service as wages stagnate to cut costs, people are more angry and stressed as their standard of living decli…
Lol I'd never imagined I'd see a comment like this here of all places.
There are plenty of socialists and non-capitalists in tech.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#35My gut feeling is that we're entering into capitalism's end game phase. The endless growth is unsustainable and is eating away the only planet we have. Once it becomes apparent that business as usual isn't going to work any longer and that cost of living will eat away any reserves one might have, I expect things to get very bad for a lot of people. I feel this outlook might influence a lot of that: Get as much as possible now, so you might make it longer. So start collecting bottle caps now :-)
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#36People notice and express this pattern every year for all of recorded history. People also express the opposite, seemingly as often and seemingly as perpetually.
It might just be subjective. There are countless things to see in the world and you can make a list of examples affirming whatever you want to (or dread to) believe.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#37It's part of a long-term decline that accelerated markedly in 2015 but started much earlier, with 9-11 being a major factor. The US had problems before that, of course, , but 9-11 engendered a siege mentality accompanied by a severe failure of confidence.
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#38I'm not saying that I agree with all of your points (the air and water were far worse in the mid-20th century in many areas, for example), but let's take it as given and advance an hypothesis: decreasing time horizon. The ever-increasing (because self-feeding) pace of technological change, means that there is less and less predictability about the situation in the future, so timescales over which people plan are shor…
shorter time horizon could also be related to pervasive awareness of existential risks going unaddressed
maybe people also (in many cases correctly) intuit that any effort they put into their role in society, much less extra effort to help solve collective problems, is not only not matched but is likely be taken advantage of by people with outsize influence/power/privilege
a wicked incentive/alignment/coordination problem, in other words
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#39You should strongly consider seeing a therapist, in all honesty. Read some books on mindfulness, consider putting the phone down and staying away from news headlines for a while.
That can be good advice for OP (I suspect it is), but also OP can have a point: things can largely be getting worse, not staying the same or getting better.
> General worker apathy is endemic everywhere I go
I have noticed a major increase in this in my day-to-day interactions
Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?
#40Read Karl Marx, what we're seeing is basically what he described as the end state of capitalism. Everything gets shittier and shittier as costs go up and profits shrink. People and businesses are getting more desperate to prop up profit or make a buck. Everything suffers--worse products as costs are cut, worse service as wages stagnate to cut costs, people are more angry and stressed as their standard of living decli…
Lol I'd never imagined I'd see a comment like this here of all places.
There's a large cross-over audience from reddit on HN.