[colinmhayes]

luckily we control our own destiny unlike said turkey. Pretty paternalistic to compare people to pets. Quality of life has improved because of our actions, not the hand of some farmer.

This is the same line of thinking as the famous "what happened to all the horses" thought which conveniently ignores the fact that horses only existed to serve as tools for people and were therefore replaced when a more useful tool was found.

[another_story]

Do we really control our own destiny? If so, why in so many places are we creating such terrible conditions for our future?

[colinmhayes]

First I'd say that things have consistently been getting better for the last 400 years, and I don't really see that changing in the near future.

> why in so many places are we creating such terrible conditions for our future?

Because many people have bad discount rates so they sacrifice future welfare for current welfare. Externalities are also extremely difficult to get people to internalize.