The things we considered to be luxurious or expensive are now cheap and inferior today (Black and white TVs, Laundary machines, having 2 cars).

It is defnietly within the reach of many first world country citizens to go around the world. I could travel from Michigan to New Jersey in a few hours for 200 bucks.

We're able to communicate with each other instantly with the internet, and not to mention all the stuff (legal and pirated) we get to enjoy.

I mean, am I seeing it too materialisticly and being too consumeristic? I mean, I don't believe materials and consuming them is enough to be happy, but I think we've made huge progress. The utility we get from all of our technology and products are huge I think. I mean, we never think about how much basic stuff like tap water, heating, sanitation, lighting, etc makes life so much better for all of us. The poor person of today is so much better off than the peasent of the Medieval Ages.

There's definetly work to be done, but I think we came a long way... anyone else feel that people don't appreciate what they already have today?

What's with all these open ended threads from you?

Standards rise with every generation, and the previous one always complain about how the new generation doesn't appreciate how hard life used to be. It's an endless cycle.

The last three threads I made were for Bad Comapny 2 O.o

Standards might rise, but I think that the standards are changing very rapidly in comparison to human history until the Industrial Revolution. The improvements we made in a decade are HUGE in comparison to the ones in a hundred year's span.

I was thinking about this the other day. When I was a kid, I'd beg my mom to take me to the arcade so that I could play Pac Man or Super Mario. Now it's available on my cell phone. I used to play video games on a black and white TV (it wasn't even 13 inches). The world has changed.

Vinyl Records to downloadable MP3's. From going to the arcade to downloading a game from thin air onto my full color PSP and playing with somebody on the other side of the world. Free porn. Bagel Bites. Robot dogs. We've come a long way in a little bit of time.

If you're 15 years old or younger and a 30 year old punches you in the stomach for absolutely no reason, you shouldn't be allowed to complain. The world now is much better (technologically) than it was then. Youngsters need to pay their dues.

To be honest, I really don't understand your point, are you arguing that we have become too self-involved, or too materialistic? In that case, I'd argue that we've always been like that, yet we're only just at the point where we can indulge in it.

And, I will say this, to do with your standards thing - we are currently going through the biggest evolution in human history, and things are changing, and very quickly. Indeed, one would predict that the world of 2030 will be completely unimaginable when compared to today, and I'm not just talking technologically - I'm talking politically, and economically as well.

2030 will be post-oil, there will be no superpower states - in fact, states in themselves will probably be a dying concept, starvation will be a thing of the past, as will energy security worries. International borders will be reduced to none as to attract as many workers as possible - particularly in Europe.

Of course, we'll also be living in a time where small groups of people will have the ability to destroy cities and countries, not just buildings, at a relatively low cost, and low difficulty.

The future looks to be both very, very exciting, and very, very scary.

No. Whining is for all non-hackers.

Yes

It's my right to complain. So I'm going to complain regardless!!!!