I think there are lots of easily measurable metrics by which things at least seem better today than in the past. If nothing else, technology has definitely gotten better and cheaper over time (particularly computers and microchips). These metrics may be naive and not capture the full picture, of course, and even if things are just objectively better now there’s lots of scary things happening right now and on the horizon that make the future a little uncertain and troubling. Overall I’m not sure I would believe that people in general are happier or better off now than they were at certain points in the past… I’m certainly struggling with that in many ways and some modern day problems are definitely impacting me and on my mind… That said, I’m not sure what time period in the past I’d rather live in instead? Maybe one where housing is cheaper, haha.
I think there are lots of easily measurable metrics by which things at least seem better today than in the past. If nothing else, technology has definitely gotten better and cheaper over time (particularly computers and microchips). These metrics may be naive and not capture the full picture, of course, and even if things are just objectively better now there’s lots of scary things happening right now and on the horizon that make the future a little uncertain and troubling. Overall I’m not sure I would believe that people in general are happier or better off now than they were at certain points in the past… I’m certainly struggling with that in many ways and some modern day problems are definitely impacting me and on my mind… That said, I’m not sure what time period in the past I’d rather live in instead? Maybe one where housing is cheaper, haha.