Do you rest on things getting better or on things staying the same?

[Mechanicalsalvation]

That Zen master is just a hippy who goes along with whatever

If thats was the case I suspect the toddler would have died.

 

[civvver]

I mean I think it's getting better. I think my wife and I won't duplicate the financial success of our parents. Her parents are small business owners- a lot of what they did starting out wouldn't fly today like they did everything old school on paper until the day they retired, and the amount of rules now makes it very daunting to get into the market and most companies have consolidated into large ones.

Millennials it seems (we're on the cusp, early 80s but I think we're more millennial than gen x) are the first generation that expects to be worse off than their parents. But I'm in tech so I'm pretty sure we'll always be assured a comfortable lifestyle until AI gets advanced enough to replace everything IT related and self manage but hopefully I'll be retired by then!

Not that worried about the environment. Not that worried about my health. I do worry about housing values and schools. I'm in suburban Detroit. 60 years ago detroit schools were great, then white flight began and the neighboring suburbs were really nice. 20 years ago when I was in school the immediate neighboring subs were nice, but in the last 5 or so years there's been a ton of urban sprawl, aging communities and more flight. Now where I grew up and went to school has dropped from being in the top third of the states school districts to the bottom third. We moved again a couple more subs over to a top 20th school district. But you can't just keep moving further and further west, eventually it's too far. I wonder what'll happen when my kids graduate. Eventually there has to be a rubberband effect right with people moving back towards the city?

I worry a little we might hit another recession and my wages will stagnate. My big costs are fixed, house payments, car payments, but with growing kids their activities and grocery bills just go up.

But in general I'm cautiously optimistic. Trying to pay down some debt and save more for the future just in case.

 

[warpus]

If thats was the case I suspect the toddler would have died.

Is that so?

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Is that so?

Yes, master.

 

[Borachio]

I quite regularly, and cheerfully, tell all and sundry, and anyone who'll listen, that it's all downhill from here on. (I'm nothing if not a realist.)

Everybody, who takes any notice of me telling them that, agrees with me.

Though no-one seems particularly cheered by the prospect.

I can't think why.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I am fine and I think I will be fine, even for the downhill slide.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I quite regularly, and cheerfully, tell all and sundry, and anyone who'll listen, that it's all downhill from here on. (I'm nothing if not a realist.)

Everybody, who takes any notice of me telling them that, agrees with me.

Though no-one seems particularly cheered by the prospect.

I can't think why.

it is all relative my good man. Many, many things are improving just as there are things that are getting worse in some ways. The shorter the time frame of one's perspective, the easier it is to be negative. The narrower the scope of one's collected data points, the easier it is to be negative. For Venezuelans and Syrians things are pretty bleak. Not everyone is facing their troubles. Is the best perspective the individual one? If so what is the standard and can one standard be used for all?

Our future is unfolding one day at a time. Are you contributing to a better or worse sense of well being? What does being a realist mean?

 

[Borachio]

Being a realist, for me, means I really don't think I'm going to live forever, and I'll likely be continuing to face more and more health problems.

I am, in spite of it all, more and more cheerful.

I like to look at it like this: the grave is my ultimate destination and getting there is likely to be uncomfortable to say the least, but I'm not going to compound my problems by being miserable about them.

As for whether my individual perspective is the best or not, I wouldn't know. It is, though, the only one I have.

I could, I suppose, if that's what you getting at, concentrate on global issues, like world poverty, or global warming.

But those, for me, are just hobbies. And distractions from the serious issue of having fun.

 

[GenMarshall]

Don't feel fine and I feel things are still going down the toilet no matter how much I or others try.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Being a realist, for me, means I really don't think I'm going to live forever, and I'll likely be continuing to face more and more health problems.

I am, in spite of it all, more and more cheerful.

I like to look at it like this: the grave is my ultimate destination and getting there is likely to be uncomfortable to say the least, but I'm not going to compound my problems by being miserable about them.

As for whether my individual perspective is the best or not, I wouldn't know. It is, though, the only one I have.

I could, I suppose, if that's what you getting at, concentrate on global issues, like world poverty, or global warming.

But those, for me, are just hobbies. And distractions from the serious issue of having fun.

Thank you. As much as people today are not too different than our ancestors, the world has certainly improved over the past few hundred years. With ups and downs and detours along the way, the world is moving in the right direction as far as people are concerned. At the individual level it is still very much a genetic crap shoot and luck of the draw as to where one is born and into which family. But for many more people, we have better choices available than in the past. Aging is a <snip>, and anything chronic only adds to the nastiness. Attitude can steer one on a smoother course.

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