[nazgulnarsil]

>but it has not necessarily increased the well-being of the average person

2000-2010 was the greatest decade in all of human history for upraising the standard of living of the human race as a whole. The attitude in this entire comments thread sickens me.

[AJ007]

Human history is a story of people nostalgic for the past, believing things are going to hell, oblivious to improvements.

When I was born two big countries had nuclear weapons pointed at each other with the very realistic possibility of exchange. Everything we built could be eradicated in an hour or two. We are quite better off.

[gizmo686]

I'm reminded of a history class I had relatively recently. We were talking about the cold war, and the issue of modern terrorism came up. My history teacher made the point that, looking back, many people are nostolgic because in the cold war, the president could pick up the phone to the soviets and talk to someone rational.

I doubt anyone at the time thought that.

[nknighthb]

> When I was born two big countries had nuclear weapons pointed at each other with the very realistic possibility of exchange.

The only time at which that hasn't been true was a brief period during the early-mid 1990s. India and Pakistan are not small countries.

[smokeapotamus]

`Do not ask, ``Why were the old days better than these?'' For it is not wise to ask such questions.' (Ecclesiastes 7:10)

[lambdasquirrel]

Besides that this completely missed the context, that we are talking about the American mass media, and American nostalgia, I'd argue that time will have to tell on this matter. 2000-2010 started well for most of the world, but major faults were revealed in the global economic system. We may well look back on this time period much as we would with the Roaring 20's. What if most of the growth was fake? What if it really were all just financed by deficit spending on the part of the West, and that China, India and the rest of the developing world cannot uphold their current levels of infrastructure, let alone their level of prosperity?