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Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

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Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#671

Post by jahewson »

JacksonGariety wrote: post #45
PessimalDecimal wrote: post #25

> People are noisy as fuck and dont seem to give a shit. Seems like every night there's someone with loud as exhaust on "sportish" car ripping around the neihborhood. For months this guy would start up his loud car at 7am and no one care when I complained. > Police seem to not give a shit anymore. I've noticed what seems to be total lawlessness going on in my world. Folks stealing shit. People driving absurdly danger…

This is the problem generally known as liberalism. Hobbes said the foundation of the state was the arbitrary Will of the individuals in the state. Modern states are thus founded on caprice. The solution is as JFK said: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

This begs the question, what is it that my country wants to do, and who decides that?

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#673

Post by proprietario »

lamp987 wrote: post #72

If you live in USA or western europe, real living standards have been decreasing for decades now. But thats probably not something youd particularly notice over 5 years.

Measured by what? The quota of people able to read/write nears 100%, child deaths are down, etc etc

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#675

Post by throwawaybbq1 »

I thought it was me getting old (in my 40s now, with little kids, life feels like shit). My thoughts:

1) Globalization caused massive changes to this world that have not been properly acknowledged. Sort of like none of the politicians cared about redistribution. In aggregate, the average person is better off, but there are significant structural impacts. A lot of people in the west, got hit badly (e.g. manufacturing). Conversely, a lot of people in Asia (specifically, China and India) have had spectacular improvements in standard of living.

2) Mobile & Internet: info travels at the speed of light. Along with general computing advances, this makes everyone more efficient, but simultaneously more starved for human contact and with little to no downtime.

3) We are still paying the price for the 2008 fiasco. Interest rates were down too long and inflation measures not accurate. House prices (and other asset prices) went up dramatically. This simultaneously increased wealth inequality (those with assets gained, those without got left behind), and made the so-called American dream harder to attain.

I was very romantic about democracy growing up in countries without it. Now that I am older, I can see how messed up the system is (even in the West). I remain optimistic that the Internet and computing will somehow improve things, though I don't exactly see how.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#677

Post by LAC-Tech »

ok_dad wrote: post #669
LAC-Tech wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some day soon I’ll be the parent their boyfriends will come home to meet. I hope they feel they have the freedom to wear what they’re comfortable in and that represents their genuine identity. Really? My hope is that I don't raise my daughter so poorly she ends up with a slob who wears pyjama in public.

I hope my son finds love and kindness with literally anyone he loves and enjoys, but that’s just me. Maybe other people don’t want their kids to be happy?

Maybe other people don’t want their kids to be happy?

Yeah you're just a better parent than everyone else. Congratulations, you can order yourself a "worlds best dad" mug and with you it won't even be a joke!

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#678

Post by LAC-Tech »

halfcat wrote: post #659
LAC-Tech wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some day soon I’ll be the parent their boyfriends will come home to meet. I hope they feel they have the freedom to wear what they’re comfortable in and that represents their genuine identity. Really? My hope is that I don't raise my daughter so poorly she ends up with a slob who wears pyjama in public.

You can hope, but it’s nowhere within your circle of control. Every non-parent says “my kid will never…”, which is comical. The most surprising part of parenting to me was how wildly different each child’s personality and temperament are, and how little control I have to affect any of it.

Sure, there's nature and nurture in play. But foregoing your responsibility to nurture because of the strength of nature is not a path I want to go down.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#679

Post by syzarian »

Gigachad wrote: post #577
syzarian wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are obvious examples in history where it really is getting worse and then things get better. How do you know that Rosy Retrospection applies in this case?

Pick an actual measure and look at real data vs vague feelings. Or like they pointed out, at least compare feelings recorded at the time vs current feelings vs memories of past feelings.

And how does that help the feeling the poster has now? Of course in hindsight it will be known if things are as bad as the poster thinks. Why state the obvious that in the future it will be known if this present time was as bad as some thought? And the question I asked remains unanswered: How does noud know that rosy retrospection is what the poster is experiencing?

Re: Ask HN: Why Is Everything Declining?

#680

Post by User23 »

Gigachad wrote: post #586
User23 wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because a thing has a name doesn't mean it's true. In many ways the past was better than the present. For example in 1965 a single average wage earner could afford a 15 year mortgage for a nice house in a nice neighborhood. And don't even get me started on architecture. There's no rosy colored glasses there. Contemporary five over ones are abominable.

For a very large chunk of the population, life is much better today than it was in 1965. Ask the average person in a 3rd world country which has now lifted out of poverty since then or someone who didn't live the straight white ideal 1965 scenario. And even for people who did live the best possible situation of 1965, we are no longer poisoning everyone with lead and asbestos in the way we were back then. As well as m…

> Ask the average person in a 3rd world country which has now lifted out of poverty

Who did the lifting?

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