Gendarme wrote:Are you sure about that? Allow me to quote myself from a different topic:lejend wrote:Poor people today have a higher standard of living than most humans did in historyIn other words, Joe's standard of living is not really higher than the one of Johnny, who lives in the rainforest of Amazonas. He has much less free time, a dwarfed social life in comparison to Johnny's, has restricted freedoms due to government regulations (although civilization technically gives him more options than the rainforest, if only he could afford them), and is not only psychically, but physically incredibly unhealthy (virtually no exercise, and insanely unhealthy food - even food that "is supposed to" and most believe to be healthy).Gendarme wrote:Joe soon realises that despite working 6 hours a day, and his wife doing the same, collectively working 12 hours a day - their current lifestyle is more than they can handle. The mortgage payment, the installment fee of their car loan, the cost of their two kids, and their epicurean food-consumption together with other every-day expenses exceed what their income can handle.
By what metric are modern standards of living no higher than during any time in history? Most people in history didn't live carefree lives in the forest. Life was fairly harsh. Some aspects of life were better, to be sure, but in general life was far less safe and comfortable. Any faults in the modern way of life are voluntary; people willingly make bad financial, health and other decisions. Nevertheless life is still more comfortable than it was 2000 or even 200 years ago.