Bingo. I see this is the kind of topic where other people say what I think much better than I could.

I'd say this is the best time to live for a middle class white male in a first world country like this. High technology, great medical care (even free in this country), chance for everyone to get high level of education (again, free for everyone here in Finland) and nearly everything else a man could ask for. Problem is this propably wont last very long because



This planet simply doesn't have the resources for this many people to live like this.

There is no doubt that life, overall, is better than it was 100 years ago. Medicine, technology, etc. have all come a very long way in just the last 20 years alone.

Still, society has issues with uncertain improvements.

We had the "civil rights movement" and "integration" but racial tensions are probably just as bad today as it ever was. There have always been issues of have and have not, but while the world had a peak of prosperity in most western nations, poor fiscal policy has most every western nation ready to fall into a situation where you have the uber wealthy and abject poverty for the masses.

Technology and the wealth to utilize it has a lot to do with being free and having a good quality of life. If the world is about to go into a situation where wealth is held by very few, we'd actually be worse off than we were 200 years ago. 200 years ago the wealthy had limited ways to exert control over others due to primitive technology. Today, the ability of a poor man to live free is heavily restricted compared to what someone could have chosen to do 200 years ago.

Of course, the world is on the cusp of radical change. Where that change is taking us is uncertain. The uber wealthy have their agenda. The common man wants something else.

Yup, I actually have an exam in 3 hours pertaining to this exact subject. At what point does the earth reach it's maximum carrying capacity? Will human ingenuity succeed in being able to find alternatives to nonrenewable resources? These topics have been long debated and there is no definite answer, only time will tell. However, speaking in the present and comparing it to a century ago, the current generation has improved.

This is exactly what I was going to bring up, with more emphasis on the second part.
There are a lot of autism spectrum people that would be confined to the fringes of society, who are now accepted as our peers, often our betters.
Acceptance is definitely a good thing.

I would say that life is better for someone who takes an active part in improving their own life.
After the turn of the century, most Americans gained a lifestyle fairly similar to that of most Americans today: that is, the poor have gotten no less poor, the middle class no less middling and so forth.

Those who take advantage of opportunities, however, find that today's social structure allows for much more motion between social classes than that of the previous century.
Education is easier than ever to attain, as is real-world experience in a useful trade.

In addition, technological advancements have provided the opportunity to save plentiful time to have more time for recreation.
Cars, public transportation, phones, internet, dishwashers, food processors, modern ovens, refrigerators: using these devices can buy you hours in every day, for a minimal investment.
So I would argue that yes, life, especially that of an opportunistic slacker, is much easier in the contemporary world.

In short, we could go a long time before reaching a "max capacity" issue with regard to quality of life for the average person.

The main reason people are going hungry and not enjoying better medical care and education has a lot to do with outdated ways of doing things and an inability for people to set aside differences and live together in relative peacefulness.

There is a food shortage because nations that could produce more, are not....either because of misguided policy or wastefulness. There is certainly no lack of capacity to produce or need to consume.

Education is outdated in how we approach it. So long as some cultures want an ignorant populace which they can more readily control, education being widely available and affordable will never happen.

The same can be said about health care. Most needs don't require ultra-high tech, but decent nutrition and healthy living are the biggest issues. Often it's just having the standard vaccinations, antibiotics, ability to purify water, etc.

I'd be dead if it were not the modern days, so probably a personal yes. Unless I'd been born in very specific places, like the one Sappho had been born on.
The world is gradually improving, even if many people don't want to admit it and others actively hinder this. We could be further ahead if people could stop aiming for wealth first, happiness later. I'm perfectly healthy, happy and hopelessly underpaid (if I heard correctly), so... What gives, the first two are much more important.

NO

Why?

No---I'm still poor and living on check to check basis and the way things are now, it's just not getting any better.

Of course it is, and unless you live in a total hellhole, anyone saying otherwise is wrong.

Sure I might be struggling with bills, but 100 years ago I would be struggling with bills AND have polio...

I'm not sure anyone can answer this question.

Why can't they? There are plenty of people that offer their opinion in this entire thread some look at it in an individual way and that is personal. For example if somebody is living paycheck to paycheck they might take for granted technologies and medicines that they have available to them that they wouldn't 100 years ago. Penicillin wasn't around until WWII. That changed the game quite a bit and improved living conditions. 100 years ago there was a lot more infant mortality.

What I want to hear is why life hasn't improved with time, not just a simple "no."

In ye olde days, if your crops failed or your sheep got sick and died you were pretty much screwed. No welfare security net, and no jobs as we have them today (i'm thinking pre-industrial revolution).

Think of what you do have:
indoor heating
indoor plumbing
access to knowledge (libraries and Internet)
education
modern medicine - including little things like sterilized bandaids, painkillers, kleenex, and the like
a society/culture/country that enables social mobility
access to fresh food all year 'round
systems that take care of your waste (trash, sewage) so you don't have to poo in the nearest river or dig a hole in the back yard where you plant your crops
clean water that won't make you sick
laws that protect your property and your person
where, theoretically, no one is above the law (this is actually a very important concept) (admittedly, not all modern countries have this as part of their legal code)
the time to contemplate if the world has gotten better or worse, and the knowledge to research the past and study the present

based on my family tree:

On my moms side: My great grandparents were dirt poor field workers that had 9 kids and lived in a 1 bedroom house with a dirt floor and my great great grandparents were also field workers for rich people and lived with the fear of being abducted by mexican bandits.

On my dads side: my grandmother was a mexican born lebanese immigrant and my great grandparents escaped a famine while they lived in the mountains of lebanon with a [censored] lifestyle.

in relation to my lifestyle, my life is something that they couldnt even dream about so for my family line, life has improved.