The best time in Human History.

ludjob

It is not easy to convince people that we live in the best time there ever was. Yet this is an undeniable fact when we analyse the situation in the context of Human History.

Human life expectancy is longer than ever; human quality of life is better than ever. Human health is superior to anything our ancestors could imagine or hope for; pain which was a constant distress to previous generations is minimised beyond their wildest dreams. All aspects of our lifestyles are more wonderful than magic could conceive or prepare for heroes of old to lively happily ever after. Sorcery could never conjure up the communication, information, entertainment, travel, leisure and so many other areas of comfort and expression that we now take for granted.

Yet this appears to be one of the most pessimistic periods the Human Race has experienced. This pessimism is not due to worries about unavailability of necessities or even of luxuries. It is not due to fears that hard labour will grind us into the dust and break us in body and spirit. These were the lot of our predecessors as they strove to rise from the yoke of constant shortage and constant toil. The paradox is that modern day pessimism is caused by the very things our predecessors strove to attain over countless centuries and generations.

We have changed the world; we can have everything in abundance and we no longer need to work as hard or as much as heretofore. These accomplishments however are destroying us. Work, from the beginning of history, was the source of all produce and practically all wealth; it also became the only credible and practical method of distributing portion of that produce and that wealth to mass populations.
We no longer need work in anything like the same quantity to produce goods and wealth like we did before but we need the jobs desperately as a distributor. This distribution feature of Economics has broken down and we are in denial regarding the elimination of work on such a large scale.



National and personal debt has grown to unmanageable levels because of such an elimination of work. The debt is a failed attempt to replace earning power with cheap and easy credit and the remedial action being ptomulgated is part of the same, with austerity added for good measure that is as harmful to populations as they it is ineffective in solving the difficulty. If portions of society exist on bread and water for a hundred years the debt will never be paid off. The reason is that the work which always created the wealth to repay debt is no longer available because it is not needed. The wealth however to abolish the debt is available and in greater quantity than ever before but it is created by Technology. Unless and until we realise this seismic change to World Economics we will not emerge from the pessimistic darkness.

Our ancestors would be bemused at our reaction to success. They would marvel at our inability to cope with achievements they could only fantacsise about and many they never even dreamed of. It is hoped that our successors will also be bemused at how long it took us to emerge from the denial of our success. The great worry is if the denial lasts too long it could be a real cause of pessimism. Desperate people do desperate things and if we continue the futile path of believing this is just a fiscal blip where nothing has really changed, desperate people could do desperate things again.

This is unlike any previous period the Human Race has ever experienced before; there never was a time of such supply of goods and and such little need for work. It should be a time of celebration and optimism; we have achieved the best world there ever was. It would be so sad if we destroyed it all because we fail to see the success we have achieved.

Yahew

This is definitely the best time in Human history. At 36 I would likely be dead by now in any other era, and would have no access to clean water, good food, etc.

This is unlike any previous period the Human Race has ever experienced before; there never was a time of such supply of goods and and such little need for work. It should be a time of celebration and optimism; we have achieved the best world there ever was. It would be so sad if we destroyed it all because we fail to see the success we have achieved.

Yeah, well the government could soak up the surplus labour supply however I think that may be killing the golden goose ( Capitalism as provider of wealth, and government merely to paper over the inequalities not as a majority employer). It isn't really that there isn't enough jobs to go around, absent a recession full employment will happen inevitably, it is that that early 21st century capitalism doesnt need to pay un and semi skilled workers that much, becasue of competition from the East acerbating the difference between capitalist and worker, and between skilled worker and unskilled.

I dont have any easy solutions.

mikemac

Is that your letter in the Irish Independant?
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/were-living-in-the-best-of-times-2858729.html

UsernameInUse

mikemac wrote: »

Is that your letter in the Irish Independant?
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/were-living-in-the-best-of-times-2858729.html

lol

Since OP did this before in AH and it's a letter taken directly from the Independent with no discussion I don't see the point...