Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#361

Post by dragonwriter » Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 9:20 PM UTC

laidoffamazon wrote: post #336

mynameishere wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that house had one bathroom. One phone. Zero air conditioners. Zero computers. The four kids had two bedrooms with bunkbeds. The TV was black and white with 2.5 scratchy channels. If the car made it to 50,000 miles you were doing well. Entertainment was maybe a trip to the movies once a month. Eating out was for celebrations only. Certain things have gotten worse, though. The neighborhood was pleasant, with fri…

I'm not a historian but I'm pretty sure a lot of people talked about racism in the '60s! People thought the same thing about colleges, television, and movies pushing a radical racial message.

> I'm not a historian but I'm pretty sure a lot of people talked about racism in the '60s!

But less so around the mid-1990s, which was the nadir of the perceived incidence and racism in the US (and this is fairly consistent—though the degree of perceived racism and concern about it is not—across racial groups.)

So, while the issue is not new, and not by any means the worst it has ever been, there is a generally greater perception of a problem today tha a few decades ago, whether the problem is worse, sensitivity/standards are higher, or some mix or other factor.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#362

Post by PragmaticPulp » Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 9:20 PM UTC

cedws wrote: post #308

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #274

I don't know your age but I'm going to guess 30+. This is just happens when you get old. When you were younger you probably noticed that all the older people you knew pined for some earlier time (say the 1970s or 1950s). And you probably thought they were being silly. Well, now you've become one of those people. The fact is the world always seems better when you are younger, not because the world necessarily better,…

I'm 21 and I think everything's going to shit as well... is it doomerism or reality? Politicians appear increasingly corrupt and selfish. Geopolitics are becoming less stable. Innovation is coming to a standstill. The average person just wants a decent job, a nice place to live, and maybe a family. All of these are becoming more and more difficult to achieve. Is it any wonder kids are checking out of life en masse?

Try turning off the news, avoiding social media sites (Reddit, Twitter, HN, anywhere people share bad stories), and getting more in person interaction.

You don’t need to be invested in the finer details of global politics or stories of violence hundreds of miles a way. Disconnect and recharge. Reconnect with people around you and enjoy the world as it exists, not for some representation of all the terrible things on news media.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#363

Post by Kuinox » Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 9:21 PM UTC

drewcon wrote: post #342

cedws wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 21 and I think everything's going to shit as well... is it doomerism or reality? Politicians appear increasingly corrupt and selfish. Geopolitics are becoming less stable. Innovation is coming to a standstill. The average person just wants a decent job, a nice place to live, and maybe a family. All of these are becoming more and more difficult to achieve. Is it any wonder kids are checking out of life en masse?

You’re wrong on pretty much every measure here.

ah yes, the 10k€/m2 studio is probably my imagination.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#364

Post by Animats » Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 9:21 PM UTC

We are seeing decline in some areas where there are monopolies. Companies used to be afraid of competition. Not being able to produce enough product or raising prices too much meant someone else was going to come along and take over your market. But, once a monopoly or oligopoly has been achieved, companies have far more pricing power. It takes about four major players before you get price competition, from an EU study. The US is down to 2 or 3 in many areas, from drugstores to cell phone services.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#365

Post by kashunstva » Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 9:21 PM UTC

The noise complaint is the one that resonated with me. My pet peeve is the phenomenon of libraries being converted into some kind of community center/day care centre. In my day, libraries were as quiet as tombs and the noise standard was enforced. Now library staff put out kids’ board games to play. Or tolerate grown adults having long cell phone conversations in the library. This is not Starbucks; get out. Even noise canceling headphones isn’t enough.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#366

Post by Tiktaalik » Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 9:22 PM UTC

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #307

Tiktaalik wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A European nation casually invading another European nation, something we thought was now unthinkable not too long ago.

Are you joking? Europe's history is full of this

Europe's history is full of this, but yes no joke there were many, many political observers who, not too long after the conflicts in the Balkan countries in the late 90s, and as countries formerly under Soviet influence became liberal democracies felt that this era of European history was in the past, that liberal democracies wouldn't invade one another yada yada and that there would never be any more wars in Europe.

Obviously they were wrong, or perhaps there just needed to be an asterisk next to Russia as they quickly regressed away from becoming a liberal democracy and all the conflicts recently have involved Russian aggression against its neighbours.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#367

Post by willis936 » Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 9:22 PM UTC

7sidedmarble wrote: post #315

troad wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of this is related to inequality, value of labour detaching from wealth, and the increasing unaffordability of life. Inequality is declining by every measurable metric in the United States. Edit: To answer the folk naysaying with their ten second Google searches, the income inequality rate has declined between 2007 and 2019(1), helped by a strong wage recovery in the late 2010s. The share of wealth held by th…

> > A lot of this is related to inequality, value of labour detaching from wealth, and the increasing unaffordability of life. > Inequality is declining by every measurable metric in the United States. How would you explain any of these metrics? https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-...

No not those metrics. The ones Tucker Carlson talks about.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#368

Post by laserlight » Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 9:22 PM UTC

noodleman wrote: post #288

laserlight wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you don't find this obviously true Not the one you're replying to... Not only I don't find this obviously true, but also I find it obviously wrong. I prefer people stop being offended by how others look and stop judging people by their looks. I consider such attitude very shallow.

I'm not going to defend the other commenters point but I find your position strange. Imagine a person covered in poo, ripped clothes leaving visible track marks from using intraveinous drugs. I'm sure if you were forced to interact with that person, you'd not be happy, right? Does that make you shallow? I'm not sure someone wearing pyjamas is the slippery slope the previous commenter thinks it is, but their point abo…

I’m rather confused. The topic was how one looked. Where did poo and drugs come from? And where did happiness come from? Do you consider happiness a judgement?

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#369

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 9:22 PM UTC

troad wrote: post #248

Tiktaalik wrote: post #204

A lot of this is related to inequality, value of labour detaching from wealth, and the increasing unaffordability of life. The material conditions of regular people are continuously getting worse as more and more of their income is stripped away by rent seeking oligopolies, mainly increasing housing costs but depending on your jurisdiction all sorts of other costs (eg. cable and mobile phone costs an issue in some pl…

> A lot of this is related to inequality, value of labour detaching from wealth, and the increasing unaffordability of life. Inequality is declining by every measurable metric in the United States. Edit: To answer the folk naysaying with their ten second Google searches, the income inequality rate has declined between 2007 and 2019(1), helped by a strong wage recovery in the late 2010s. The share of wealth held by th…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#370

Post by MonkeyMalarky » Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 9:22 PM UTC

acyou wrote: post #310

MonkeyMalarky wrote: post #64

>the water is poison Putting aside the tons of pollution in lakes and oceans, what strikes me the most now is the abject failure and neglect in cities like Jackson, Mississippi and Flint, Michigan. How are people so powerless, governments so weakened, and politicians so detestable that something as basic as clean drinking water in cities is no longer functioning?

Clean drinking water in cities isn't the default state of affairs. We're all used to it, but we would do well to remember the open sewers and water carrying from wells and drinking from lakes, streams and rivers that have prevailed in human history. Formerly, we wouldn't live in a desert if there wasn't any water. So we drilled deeper wells where the heavy metals are. We also put a lot of heavy metals into watersheds…

A: It feels like society is declining, am I alone in seeing it?

Tons of replies: No, we see it too in X, Y, Z ways as well.

B:

C: The decline isn't real, people abdicating their responsibilities totally isn't a problem, life has always been shite so quit complaining

Sorry, that's just what I see when you reply with:

>Clean drinking water in cities isn't the default state of affairs

Honestly, I'd say you are gaslighting here because you're trying to convince people that regressing from forward progress isn't a loss. Also, cities and civilization aren't the default state of affairs. There's millennia more of prehistoric time where humans lived in the unforgiving wilderness. Are you suggesting that we are not allowed complain until we're back to living nomadic lives, hunting wild game on the steppes? Like you said, anything better than that isn't the default state of affairs.