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One common thing between lots of leftist groups such as LateStageCapitalism etc. is that they claim that the economy has stopped growing. Which is objectively not true - world hunger is shrink, literacy rising, access to electricity and water etc rising worldwide etc etc. Also in the 1st world industrial output has more than doubled since the 90s, average house size has doubled. etc.
But unfortunately these improvements have not been distributed equally through the population. Due to our sick monetary system.
In Germany under Merkel the GDP rose by 30%. While only a small part of the population has actually deteriorated Quality of Life - almost nobodys QoL rose by 30% - especially not the middle class!
So my question: Has your QoL improved? To disregard differences in age - let's compare it to your parents in your age.
My parents starting salary in relative purchasing power is higher than mine, they had less taxes, they were able to finance a home and a plot of land on those salaries, and a car. Something that if I had to do I probably would 4-5x the salary I have now
They went on far more vacations, and even got cleaned out on investment in the dot com bubble and were able to recover
I can't say I have that same quality of life, and runway for a risk buffer. I don't remember my parents thinking they need to scale down ever until they hit retirement, here I am doing it in my early 30s
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For Me:
  • I live in my own apartment. My parents when thy were in my age lived in a shared student dorm. Sharing kitchen, bathrooms etc with 20-30 other strangers.
  • I can literally order any food I want with the click of a button for a meal worth 1/2 hour of my working time. In my parents generation it was only for special occasions and pizza was pretty much all there was
  • I can order groceries with the click of a button. I can rent a electrical scooter with the click of a button for almost no money
  • The city has objectively far less trash and more greenery. It's visible on all photos.
  • Speaking of photos: analog photos hat superior quality back then. But iPhones are more convenient
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Neither of my parents went to college. My dad is blue collar. My mom used to be a receptionist but began to be unemployable (drugs) around my current age.
My quality of life isn't materially higher. But .. I've never really upgraded my lifestyle. I imagine if I wanted to take on debt and didn't want to be a founder, it would be higher.
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family life was held to a higher degree and work life balance was easier. dad worked M-F and mother had a dedication to child raising so there was an easy and respected division of labor
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"Modern persons in general cannot conceive of any other science than that of things that can be measured, counted, and weighed, in other words material things, since it is to these alone that the quantitative point of view can be applied; the claim to reduce quality to quantity is very typical of modern science. This tendency has reached the point of supposing that there can be no science, in the real meaning of the word, except where it is possible to introduce measurement, and that there can be no scientific laws except those that express quantitative relations... We will not dwell on the mistake of seeking to reduce quality to quantity, or on the inadequacy of all attempts at explanation that are more or less of the 'mechanistic' type. That is not our present purpose, and we will remark only, in this connection, that even in the sensible order, a science of this kind has but little connection with reality, the greater part of which is bound to elude it." ~ Rene Guenon
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great quote
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