| I've been reading that we are doomed since the days of reagonomics. Well, technically longer. I've seen the very same predictions and arguments made, yet here we are. To be absolutely clear - the system isn't perfect and could use improvements. My post was merely to point out that we're not only not doomed but are doing fairly well. We have hungry people, but we don't have people dying of hunger in the streets. We have crappy medical coverage, but we have some of the best practices in the world - and horribly unaffordable emergency treatment that will probably financially ruin you. We have both wealthy and poor, but our poor are rather wealthy on the global scale. It's not perfect, there's room to make improvements, but it's not really that terrible and the doom and gloom predictions haven't changed since the 80s. They've barely changed since the 60s. I can't speak for earlier than that, I wasn't cognizant. Society isn't breaking down. The kids are as reckless as they ever were and old people complain about them as they always have. There isn't going to be a revolution, class warfare isn't going to erupt into violent confrontations on a mass scale, and nobody is going to eat the rich. Call me when they are hanging bankers and politicians from lamp posts. It's not perfect but it's not horrible. It's actually pretty good for the average person. Even the below average have it pretty good if we examine them from the perspective of a global community. Our poor people get more monthly food assistance than some people spend on food for an entire year. Not that we should emulate them, but we should stand back and admit that it's not that bad and acknowledge that the many predictions of doom have been grossly inaccurate. Can we improve? Of course, and we should. Only insane people would think the system is perfect and can't be improved. I'm fact, the only differences I see between groups of people are the things they want to improve. I don't think anyone seriously believes it is currently ideal. It's just not that terrible for the average person. You don't start getting massive uprisings with serious revolution potential until those average people can't get their football and beer. |
But societies rise and fall on a greater timeline than one's lifetime. Wages haven't risen since the 70s or 80s and there is still no revolution, so it will take time. But recognizing that there is a problem is the first step to fixing it, before it's too late and it snowballs. Or perhaps ups and downs are unavoidable, and it's best to just plan for yourself.
Either way, the declines in birth rate, marriage, and equality are, by all indications, due to structural economic factors. Society is changing, maybe not breaking down to the point of violent confrontations yet, but it is something to watch out for in the future, but it could take a while.