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The life of a 19th Century coalminer in northeastern Pennsylvania and his family is by todays standards horrific. They worked at an unbelievably difficult, strenuous, and dangerous job and were compensated about $1.25 a day which was very modest even in those days. The company owned your home - a wooden shanty with no insulation or running water or plumbing, the only source of heat was a single Franklin stove in the kitchen. You had to buy your necessities in the company store and many if not most miners were in lifetime debt to their employer. If you tried to run away the company had it's own police to catch you. Often you weren't even paid in US cash - but in company "scrip." No such thing as sick days or vacation.
Not my kind of place.
I will take late-nineteenth century Alaska instead.
Lots of caribou, moose, and salmon the size of a small car. Trapping and gold panning for income, with no income taxes or taxes of any kind. My biggest concern would be whether I had enough wood cut for the winter.
"Things" are better now than when I was a young adult. But I can understand why young people who can't find a decent job and have tens of thousands in student loans may feel differently.
This is a great list, well-supported by facts. Sadly, that means it probably won't convince anyone. Most people are not persuaded by facts, logic and reason. most people are persuaded by effective appeals to their emotions. If they have a strong emotional investment in the belief that the world is falling apart, presenting them with facts that show the opposite will just frustrate them and make them dig in deeper.
The majority of people could not handle the "good old days" because they no longer have the necessary skills. With the advent of electrification a century ago the skill of preserving food has been lost with most people. We have become so dependent upon our technology that if that technology were to suddenly stop functioning tens of millions would die. Even children know how to operate smart phones these days, but how many people know what an adze or draw blade are, much less how to use them?
If we ever get hit by a large enough coronal mass ejection, people will not have to wonder what living a century in the past was like, because we will already be there.
There are still places in this world where you can live w/o electricity and already preserved food, you are always welcome to move to one of them.
I really liked that article. It wasn't biased nor was it preachy. While I am a firm believer that the world can be an extremely dangerous place and some of the optimism could prove to be unbelievably wrong ("War is really going out style" in 2014 versus "The Great War was a war to end all wars" in the 1920s), but it helps keep things in perspective.
There are no myths. People who dont appreciate earlier times are likely not old enough to have experienced them. Just because we have a lot of technological gadgetry going on and plenty of refurbished philosopies about what material happiness is supposed to feel like, doesnt mean that our societal quality of life has made any advances. It has'nt. It is actually in a dismal downward spiral. And I am by no means pessimistic. But I do accept reality and hope to make the best of it without rationalizing.
Life is more convenient today in police state where you are given a relatively larger stipend to be a conformist, not question government and have no privacy. At least, in America. That's all I got from this.
Not to mention, at the expense of much of the exterior world getting pounded up the south pole still.
Not one single reference or link to those claims, to boot.
This article is written by a statist shill.
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The first rack of 60lb hay bales on a 90 degree day and you'd be crying like a baby.......
There are still places in this world where you can live w/o electricity and already preserved food, you are always welcome to move to one of them.
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