Are we better off then we were 100 maybe 1,000 years ago?

Question

Most of us like to think that because of technology we have to today and the way our government is set up, that we are more intelligent and better off then people of the past, but are we? We have global warming and it seems that people have to take pill for everything now a days. It is so hard to keep ourselves entertained, yet people back when did not seem to have a problems with all this. I just want to know your opinions and please give some good insights on this.

Answer 1

I do feel we are better off technologically. But you also have to remember they had a much shorter lifespan and they lost many women and children during childbirth. Disease ran rampant through the villages and town. They didn't have time for entertainment, they were too busy trying to survive. There were still sweatshops for women and children in the early 1900's. Supposedly the plague killed off a third of the planets population.

I think we are doing better. We just need to learn to clean up our messes.

Answer 2

No they didn't have those problems but they certainly had problems of their own. The further back you go in history the shorter the life span. People tended to die at a much earlier age due to disease and unsanitary conditions.
There were also far more wars going on in the world. And most of these were extremely bloody and involved far more loss of innocent life. In fact the further you go back in history the more wars and violence there was.
Let's not forget womens rights 100 years ago they were not allowed to vote or even own land or property. We now have women in high ranking government positions.
We also had slavery not so long ago as well. If you were of African decent you most likely would have had no freedom at all in, not only America but in many European countries as well.
Every generation has it's troubles, and societies will always be struggling with social issues. A society with no problems is a Utopian society and I think we all know that most likely will never exist, human nature won't allow for it. However I think overall we are far better off than in any time in history.

Answer 3

Okay, bathing didn't really become an accepted practice until Westerners went to Japan in the 1400-1600 centuries; Europe and the Americas didn't really adopt it until Pasteur's germ theory was proved in the 1800s. We have automobiles, planes and trains (even though I think they're becoming outmoded); we can travel farther in one hour than it took half a day to travel before the car came along. We have phones, communication satellites, and computers; that means that we can communicate to the other side of the planet in minutes, depending on the local service over there. It used to take weeks or months to get a bag of mail that the USPS usually makes deliveries in from San Francisco to Manila... So, offhand, I'd say things are better. I hope that I live long enough to see more changes in the future; I missed most of the Space Age. Darn!!!

Answer 4

We are significantly better off by virtually any measureable standard than we were 1000 years ago.

A person from a thousand years ago would kill to have the life and world you have. What you consider a problem wouldn't even make the top 500 list of potential problems of your predacessor. Five times the life span, 1000 times the chance of living most of your life without going blind, cripple, deaf, or losing a limb. You actually have a reasonable chance at keeping your teeth, having a baby without dying, and meeting your grandkids. And you think that by some chance, a person dying of old age at 40 would consider our problems as worse than theirs?

1000 years ago, people were infested with ticks, smelled like sewers, died of the flu, rarely travelled more than 20 miles from their home, were likely to be a slave or indentured servant, likely to never heard of democracy, were illiterate, and had to build walls to keep armed invaders at bay.

You worry about global warming. Your predacessor had to worry about dying of starvation if it didn't rain in a month.

And they did have global warming and environmental deterioration, in a scale relatively far larger than ours is claimed to be. Ask the Anasazi, the inhabitants of Easter Island, the Mayans, the Inca, and the Egyptians (to name a few) if their cultures were not ravaged by environmental changes far more cruel and devastating than we are facing.

You want insight into life 1000 years ago? Turn of your hot water, your flushing toilet, your electricity (internet and cable TV), your gas, and your garbage service. Sell your car, your lawn mower, and your bicycle. Tear off your roof and replace it with leaky thatch. Eat only what you kill or plant, and only if it survives the weather or doesn't rot first ( no refrigerator). Fire your dentist and doctor, and tell your fire and police departments not to bother with you. Pull your kids out of school, and give them only one or two "books" for their lifetime. Discard your disposable diapers, toilet paper, and anything made of plastic, rubber, metal (except iron and copper), or paper (hope you're good at leather working!). Hopefully, your not an indentured servant or slave forced to support your owner or lord, so you'll have a day or two of leisure in the autumn, assuming harvest went well and the rats haven't eaten to much already. Start using salt as money, since this is your only form of food preservative.

Given all of these "advantages" that persons had 1000 years ago, do you really think a news report that the average temperature next year will go up .1 degree would really be considered worse than the hardships of their entire lives?

Answer 5

We are better off (more developed spiritually) thAn we were 100 or 1000 years ago by far. There will always be a lot of jerks making it look like life is getting worse but when you realize that one person awakened is worth one million who are asleep, you can then see that we are much better off now than ever. As well the negative side of the equation which IS worse than ever only goes to highlight our situation and encourage the brave new minds to evolve and create a brave new world of love, happiness, and joy which is getting better and better. All that counts in my opinion is that there be a place for new seeds to be planted and enough water and nutrients to keep them growing.
I raise my glass to today`s youth.

Answer 6

As we developed we learnt to use different parts of our brain. Not that I think this makes us more intelligent, just able to function differently. In exploring these new things, we are eternally like children learning to walk and talk. We make mistakes, learn things the hard way and then have to revisit and revise the way we did things before. It's life, change and evolution in action. It's been happening since we happened on the planet. Change is the only constant.

Answer 7

listed here are the specs of a commodore sixty 4: presented: January 1982 released: September 1982 how many: ~17 million cost: US $595. CPU: MOS 6510, 1MHz Sound: SID 6581, 3 channels of sound RAM: 64K reveal: 25 X 40 textual content cloth 320 X 2 hundred, sixteen hues max Ports: television, RGB & composite video 2 joysticks, cartridge port serial peripheral port Peripherals: cassette recorder printer, modem exterior 170K floppypersistent OS: ROM common

Answer 8

I have always believed that we are evolving, and based on that premise I think that we are equipped now to handle newer problems after discovering the newer technologies. Those have helped eradicate and make obsolete some of our previous problems, but new problems come out.
Are we better off? Yes, in many ways.The things we take for granted now used to keep our parents enslaved for hours and hours.
The price we paid for it? We are still finding that one out.

Answer 9

Yes. Better health care. Better overall quality of life. The fact that many of us are bored & spoiled just shows how good we have it. We don't have to deal with the hardships that people had 100 or 1,000 years ago. Our lives are pretty easy. Our biggest problem is that people don't love themselves & they don't appreciate all that they have.

Answer 10

Yes, although we have come to rely on things such as technology a lot ore than we did, I believe the world itself can be seen as better for the human condition to inhabit - I cant however say the same or every other species on it though.