Originally Posted by logtroll
Originally Posted by CPWILL
Originally Posted by logtroll
What does prosperous mean to you?
I'll admit to having defined it here in economic terms. If you were to ask me what a Prosperous Life looked like, I would probably also talk about family, community, a feeling of earned achievement, and the belief that one has made a difference in the lives of others.
I would add that prosperity assessment needs to include externalized costs (think climate change), security (healthcare and economic), sustainability (stewardship of resources), etc. And the very idea that economic prosperity can include maxxing out multiple credit cards and other sorts of indulgent debt to live prosperously is highly suspect.

I think an objective and thoughtful assessment of historically comparative "prosperity" would be difficult, but would show that we certainly have the most profligate society ever, but not the most prosperous.

Hm. I don't know if I would accept security as that strong a measure - slaves have security in that tomorrow they will probably be equally wealthy as they are today, that doesn't increase their prosperity.

Externalized costs I agree can be brought in, but only to the extent that they are impacting the individual now. In China, for example, I could see the environmental damage in cities as an actual detriment to human prosperity, as it lowers life spans. Scare threats about how In A Decade The Planet Will OMG Literally Die And Explode don't reduce actual prosperity, they just increase anxiety among those who really buy into them.

As for debt - again, I agree it's a huge problem. That doesn't mean that our standard of living isn't higher than any other point in human history. We are more prosperous now than at any other time in our species :shrug:

What era would you say the human species was better off in?

Winter Is Coming