Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

Hard to explain all the points you've mentioned with one single root cause, but if I were to pick one I would say: people don't care anymore because they're bored.

We've reached a level of comfort for most of the population that is probably akin to the wealthiest people at the worst point of decadence of the Roman Empire. There is nothing to do, nothing to thrive for. The nation is not even working towards anything as a collective. Leaders have no interest in solving the current challenges (poverty, homelessness, hunger, etc) because they help keep the population in check.

>Seems like everything is subscription model and you have to pay N times to access something thats only worth 1-3x . Eg: I Netflix for a couple hours a month. At the price for 4k access I can almost go out to a theatre. Video games are all trending to subscription models. I just learned the other day that the PS4 games I got with my subcription to PSN all are locked because I stopped subscribing (nearly 50 games) . So I paid them like $125 for access to these games for 24 months, and now I cannot play any of them? At least I still own NES/SNES/N64 Game cartridges that will never lock me out

This one is wrong. If this were the SNES era to play 50 games the best you could do is rent for $3 to play for a couple nights. That's $150 (more like $300 in today's dollars) which is more than they paid for unlimited access to the games. To match that they'd have not much choice other than retail for $50 a pop, $2,500 for all of them, or $5,000 in today's dollars. Used for maybe half that with effort.

HBO was more expensive when it launched in the 80s and that doesn't count the base cable subscription fee. I pay much less for the 2-3 streaming services that I use than my parents paid for cable when I was growing up. That alone is undeniably better. Plus you can do things like buy any Disney DVD used for $2 pop plus a flat $3 shipping on ebay. No way that happens in the VCR days. Not to mention that used DVD players are practically free vs a couple hundred for a vcr player.

I understand the strong temptation to think like this. One very specific thing that I am sure has declined is journalism. The ad-supported model that was basically a patronage to writer-artist-philosophers is dead. As a result, I think we have very low quality information about what our world is like today, and much of what’s written is paid content or panicked clickbait. That means a whole lot of people get told every day that the world is burning.

But if you shut off the screens, I think you will find we live in a world that’s safer, richer, and more just than at any other point in history.

Personally, my main concerns are geopolitical and environmental. Either could knock us off this relatively great pedestal we sit on. To respond to that belief, I have aimed my career at contributing solutions.

Taking care of the most basic forms of aesthetics is a form of respect and care towards others.

There's a healthy balance between following some strict victorian dress code and wearing a pajama. It's not about the colors or shape, it's about the message it sends: "I don't bother to dress up"

Do you really have an issue with people wearing what they want?

Where do you draw the line? And who decides when things are turning socially acceptable? Are young people ment to wear the same attire as their parents because that is what I'd already socially acceptable?

I wear stupid things in public because I barely care for anything than comfort. I never thought that could bother someone