Regarding cars, Years ago, seeing a driver stranded on the side of the road staring under the hood was a constant. Today, I hardly ever see it. I remember multiple occasions on road trips as a kid (1980s) our car would just break down on the highway and we'd have to pull over and wait on the side of the road hoping someone would stop and help us find a tow truck. My dad talks about radiators going all the time when he was a young adult. Today, because of superior cars both in terms of reliability and sensors that alert us to looming problems before breakdowns, the last time I had to pull over for a car problem was 19 years ago. And getting a tow was a breeze.
I remember when the joke was that "Ford" stood for "Found on roads dead" and GM for "General malfunction". Up in Michigan where snow was accompanied by plenty of road salt, cars became leprous with rust after two or three years.
Yeah, and you have a cell phone to summon help if you need it. My not especially fancy car has roadside assistance built into it. All you need to do is press a button.
The improvements cited in the article are better goods and services.
The problem with the modern era is the significant degradation in Christian faith and human relationships compared to a generation or more ago. These contribute the most to human flourishing, much more than material well-being. I'd gladly trade all of our modern conveniences for life in the past except for one thing that you mentioned: improved medicine. That is arguably the most important improvement. It would be very hard to give that up. Still, I'd at least consider transporting myself back to the late nineteenth century if a time portal existed.
Keep in mind that American was a "caveat emptor" society back then. Basically no regulation, scams galore, etc. It was very much not a high trust society as we understand the term today.
Inequality was terrible back then-- and with almost no social safety net, Civil War pensions excepted. Lots of "patent medicines" (which were rarely patented) were mainly good for getting people high as ingredients included plenty of alcohol, cannabis material, cocaine and even heroin. Political corruption was everywhere. And that's without getting into the ugliness of Jim Crow or the abuse of women.
I've been saying this for years about airports and air travel. The food used to be terrible and outrageously priced. As a kid in the late 90s I remember getting a microwaved hot dog or something at O'Hare airport. Nowadays you have quality options and the prices are much more reasonable.
Yes! I have little tolerance for people who complain about modern air travel. And I don't just mean the points that Louis C.K. makes in his famous bit. I mean air travel compared to even 20-30 years ago.
People complain that they don't get food included in their ticket anymore, but back when it was included, they complained about how low-quality it was. Airplane food was the punch line of every bad food joke. The options in the terminal are endless. I know people who go to the airport early just to eat.
I fly pretty frequently for work, and I can't remember the last time I had a delay of more than 30 minutes. It's been years since I missed a connection. People complain about the space in economy, but I'm 5-11 and it's fine. Or, one could pay as little as $20-30 extra and get some more room. I think people just like to complain.
But that's only for people who can afford new models. Many of us cannot now. I put several thousands of dollars in repairs into my Jeep because it was still cheaper than getting even a lightly, newer used car let alone a new one.
Self-driving cars will never be for me. I rode recently in a semi-autonomous car and it was totally unnerving.
How new? our primary family vehicle is a 2013 Toyota Sienna, almost 250,000 miles. No major problems (yet). Contrast that with the VW I drove 40 years ago in high school & college, with normal usage, that basically fell apart after a decade. Anecdotal, I know, but telling.
I thought medical advances might make your list. When it comes to acute care, we basically live in a science fiction age (chronic conditions, not so much).
it guess it makes up for the dystopian hell of medical insurance and the 3rd-party payment system....
Great little article Aaron. I'm overall pretty optimistic about our so called "techno-dystopian" future, certainly the techno part has been a real boon to human flourishing. People forget how dystopian it would have felt for 1/2 of children to die before 15, or for a family member to move away and never be seen again.
"Never seen", maybe, but people in the past were letter-writers in ways that we can never hope to equal with our sloppy slap-dashed brief emails. My mother, who died fifty years ago (I was just a kid) wrote letters on her little manual typewriter almost every day, keeping in touch with a huge network of people she had known in the past. When she died we were inundated with sympathy cards from people all over whom I had never heard of.
The loss of child is horrible: a coworker's son died at age five back when I was in college. I attended the funeral and it was wrenching. When I came out from it the sunlight made no sense to me at all.
Which Portland? OR?
“Portland’s new terminal building is spectacular”
Regarding cars, Years ago, seeing a driver stranded on the side of the road staring under the hood was a constant. Today, I hardly ever see it. I remember multiple occasions on road trips as a kid (1980s) our car would just break down on the highway and we'd have to pull over and wait on the side of the road hoping someone would stop and help us find a tow truck. My dad talks about radiators going all the time when he was a young adult. Today, because of superior cars both in terms of reliability and sensors that alert us to looming problems before breakdowns, the last time I had to pull over for a car problem was 19 years ago. And getting a tow was a breeze.
I remember when the joke was that "Ford" stood for "Found on roads dead" and GM for "General malfunction". Up in Michigan where snow was accompanied by plenty of road salt, cars became leprous with rust after two or three years.
Yeah, and you have a cell phone to summon help if you need it. My not especially fancy car has roadside assistance built into it. All you need to do is press a button.
The improvements cited in the article are better goods and services.
The problem with the modern era is the significant degradation in Christian faith and human relationships compared to a generation or more ago. These contribute the most to human flourishing, much more than material well-being. I'd gladly trade all of our modern conveniences for life in the past except for one thing that you mentioned: improved medicine. That is arguably the most important improvement. It would be very hard to give that up. Still, I'd at least consider transporting myself back to the late nineteenth century if a time portal existed.
Keep in mind that American was a "caveat emptor" society back then. Basically no regulation, scams galore, etc. It was very much not a high trust society as we understand the term today.
Inequality was terrible back then-- and with almost no social safety net, Civil War pensions excepted. Lots of "patent medicines" (which were rarely patented) were mainly good for getting people high as ingredients included plenty of alcohol, cannabis material, cocaine and even heroin. Political corruption was everywhere. And that's without getting into the ugliness of Jim Crow or the abuse of women.
I've been saying this for years about airports and air travel. The food used to be terrible and outrageously priced. As a kid in the late 90s I remember getting a microwaved hot dog or something at O'Hare airport. Nowadays you have quality options and the prices are much more reasonable.
Yes! I have little tolerance for people who complain about modern air travel. And I don't just mean the points that Louis C.K. makes in his famous bit. I mean air travel compared to even 20-30 years ago.
People complain that they don't get food included in their ticket anymore, but back when it was included, they complained about how low-quality it was. Airplane food was the punch line of every bad food joke. The options in the terminal are endless. I know people who go to the airport early just to eat.
I fly pretty frequently for work, and I can't remember the last time I had a delay of more than 30 minutes. It's been years since I missed a connection. People complain about the space in economy, but I'm 5-11 and it's fine. Or, one could pay as little as $20-30 extra and get some more room. I think people just like to complain.
Re: Cars are another one.
But that's only for people who can afford new models. Many of us cannot now. I put several thousands of dollars in repairs into my Jeep because it was still cheaper than getting even a lightly, newer used car let alone a new one.
Self-driving cars will never be for me. I rode recently in a semi-autonomous car and it was totally unnerving.
How new? our primary family vehicle is a 2013 Toyota Sienna, almost 250,000 miles. No major problems (yet). Contrast that with the VW I drove 40 years ago in high school & college, with normal usage, that basically fell apart after a decade. Anecdotal, I know, but telling.
It's a 2015
I thought medical advances might make your list. When it comes to acute care, we basically live in a science fiction age (chronic conditions, not so much).
it guess it makes up for the dystopian hell of medical insurance and the 3rd-party payment system....
Great little article Aaron. I'm overall pretty optimistic about our so called "techno-dystopian" future, certainly the techno part has been a real boon to human flourishing. People forget how dystopian it would have felt for 1/2 of children to die before 15, or for a family member to move away and never be seen again.
"Never seen", maybe, but people in the past were letter-writers in ways that we can never hope to equal with our sloppy slap-dashed brief emails. My mother, who died fifty years ago (I was just a kid) wrote letters on her little manual typewriter almost every day, keeping in touch with a huge network of people she had known in the past. When she died we were inundated with sympathy cards from people all over whom I had never heard of.
The loss of child is horrible: a coworker's son died at age five back when I was in college. I attended the funeral and it was wrenching. When I came out from it the sunlight made no sense to me at all.