251–260 of 480 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The upside I think of is that this enables more specialization and "division of labor", which is one of the basic drivers of prosperity.
True, but a downside is that there may be a correlation between specialization/division of labor and depression/ennui. I don't have any data handy, but I think we often feel greater satisfaction working through all of the aspects to creating something versus being a "cog in the machine" and specializing in one role. E.g. I'd rather build a boat - have a hand in the design, source the materials, and actually physicall…
The exception would be someone like a subsistence farmer. But hell I'd rather work in a factory.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can tell whether I am happy or not. What do you mean when you say happiness doesn't exist?
Do you understand the concept of reification? If not, see https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/reification#:~:text=Re... . So if you feel happy (or miserable) it means just that - that you feel happy (or miserable). It doesn't mean that happiness or misery actually exist literally.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/
Oh my! Poor white people. White people live on average 77 years white black people live 72 years on average. The HORROR! The white man's burden to have more money and live longer! Truly the catastrophe of the 21st century.
Your generalization may be reality in your area, if you go outside at all and not just reading regurgitated politically motivated crap online. But I'm not seeing it on the ground, in the broad swaths of middle America.
But are people happier and more fulfilled? Are they more able to have a meaning-filled life surrounded by people with whom they have close and lasting relationships? What should we be measuring when we measure improvement?
I sure am! We have family and friends spread across 2 continents. We can travel freely to spend time near them, take our jobs with us wherever we go, rent a well appointed home with a tap, and when not physically present, have a video chat at a moment's notice and hop into a round of VR golf. In the old world we would have had to choose career or having relationships with our parents and extended families. No more.
When I was growing up camcorders were expensive so video is limited to special occasions. Have a good amount of pictures but a lot fewer than we have of kiddo. Cameras were more expensive and each picture cost money in film and development. Long distance calls were short and infrequent because they were expensive.
I think he kind of missed the elephant that is modern communication technology has reduced the marginal cost of skilled services enabling pretty much every object designed in an office and manufactured in a factory to benefit from a broader array of engineering and design professionals and methodologies. The average product and service that the average actor in the economy interacts with is designed and optimized to…
The downside to broadening the talent pool for design/manufacturing is that it means workers now have to be among the best in the world to get business and thus earn a good living. It no longer suffices to be the best in a local region. If each local region needs its own widget factory, then to become a top widgetsmith you only have to compete with the local widgetsmith talent pool. Just as there can be many high sch…
> airplane flights no longer cost an appreciable fraction of your annual income12 , and people can afford multiple trips a year. I routinely flew in the 80's and 90's: shorter lines, more cabin space, and food every flight (and fewer yokels airing their stinky bare feet). I'd go back to that in a heartbeat.
These times of algorithmic flight loading and canceling/combining 'underbooked' flights really stink.
I once ended up flying a Seattle - Boston redeye on a 747 with a total three other passengers, and the flight crew said that they (Braniff Air, bought by Northwest, etc.) were still making money on the flight because the hold was full of US Mail.
That was a quality experience we'll likely never see again.
(Then again, I also once flew London to NYC one row in front of the smoking section - that's also a quality experience that I won't miss never seeing again)
But are people happier and more fulfilled? Are they more able to have a meaning-filled life surrounded by people with whom they have close and lasting relationships? What should we be measuring when we measure improvement?
"Happier and more fulfilled" is a good question to ask about a person, but I think it gets too squishy in regards to people. Too abstract. If you're going to broaden person to people, I think it's best to narrow to "happier and more fulfilled" in regards to something. Marriage/personal economics/profession/social life/spiritual life/etc.
Environment: air quality in most places has continued to improve (and considering the growing evidence on the harms of air pollution, this may well be the single most important item on this whole page), forest area has increased , and more rivers are safe to fish in Because almost all the industrial production that pollutes water and air moved to third-world countries, where people suffer from pollution. Same for thr…
Rather, pollution is largely something that occurs in the production process in locations where desperation for production is so high that they are not willing to put in any personal effort or social policies to curtail it at the expense of production.
However, once you become richer, air quality and so on moves higher in our collective list of priorities. Production can occur without pollution. It is just more expensive, and requires care.