In the long run, wars make us safer and richer

[grumbler]

1950-1980, anyway.

Your birth wasn't the global disaster that your ego would make it to be.

[MadImmortalMan]

Well the good news I guess is we've been at war nearly non-stop for fifteen years. Are we rich yet?

[sbr]

Well the good news I guess is we've been at war nearly non-stop for fifteen years. Are we rich yet?

I can say for sure that it hasn't trickled down this far yet.

[crazy canuck]

So war really is peace

[jimmy olsen]

Very muddled argument.

As this process unfolded, humanity prospered. Ten thousand years ago, when the planet's population was 6 million or so, people lived about 30 years on average and supported themselves on the equivalent income of about $2 per day.

Thing is, the life expectancy and income levels were basically the same c. 1800, albeit with a larger population.  Even in the most develped parts of the world (Western Europe) life expectancy was around 40 or so and income levels in the range of $3-4 per day.

Almost all of the progress in living standards in all of world history has occured in the last 200 years, and the bulk of that has occurred since 1950.

I'm pretty sure a subsistence farmer in 1800 had a higher living standard than a hunter gatherer who lived 10,000 years ago.

[Capetan Mihali]

Very muddled argument.

As this process unfolded, humanity prospered. Ten thousand years ago, when the planet's population was 6 million or so, people lived about 30 years on average and supported themselves on the equivalent income of about $2 per day.

Thing is, the life expectancy and income levels were basically the same c. 1800, albeit with a larger population.  Even in the most develped parts of the world (Western Europe) life expectancy was around 40 or so and income levels in the range of $3-4 per day.

Almost all of the progress in living standards in all of world history has occured in the last 200 years, and the bulk of that has occurred since 1950.

I'm pretty sure a subsistence farmer in 1800 had a higher living standard than a hunter gatherer who lived 10,000 years ago.

Yes, but according to the Tim metric, a welfare recipient in Detroit circa 20now has a higher living standard than a Viking chieftain...

[jimmy olsen]

Very muddled argument.

As this process unfolded, humanity prospered. Ten thousand years ago, when the planet's population was 6 million or so, people lived about 30 years on average and supported themselves on the equivalent income of about $2 per day.

Thing is, the life expectancy and income levels were basically the same c. 1800, albeit with a larger population.  Even in the most develped parts of the world (Western Europe) life expectancy was around 40 or so and income levels in the range of $3-4 per day.

Almost all of the progress in living standards in all of world history has occured in the last 200 years, and the bulk of that has occurred since 1950.

I'm pretty sure a subsistence farmer in 1800 had a higher living standard than a hunter gatherer who lived 10,000 years ago.

Yes, but according to the Tim metric, a welfare recipient in Detroit circa 20now has a higher living standard than a Viking chieftain...

I think that's a standard held by anyone that's not brain damaged.

[fhdz]

Higher living standard does not equal success nor happiness. Never has. Never will, actually.

[Habbaku]

A higher living standard would make me happier.

[CountDeMoney]

Higher living standard does not equal success nor happiness. Never has. Never will, actually.

The hell it doesn't.

[Ed Anger]

I'm happy.

[crazy canuck]

Very muddled argument.

As this process unfolded, humanity prospered. Ten thousand years ago, when the planet's population was 6 million or so, people lived about 30 years on average and supported themselves on the equivalent income of about $2 per day.

Thing is, the life expectancy and income levels were basically the same c. 1800, albeit with a larger population.  Even in the most develped parts of the world (Western Europe) life expectancy was around 40 or so and income levels in the range of $3-4 per day.

Almost all of the progress in living standards in all of world history has occured in the last 200 years, and the bulk of that has occurred since 1950.

I'm pretty sure a subsistence farmer in 1800 had a higher living standard than a hunter gatherer who lived 10,000 years ago.

I know I am going to hate myself in the morning but here it goes.

Why do you think that timmay?  Hunter gatherers were healthier and lived longer than the farmers that settled the first cities. 

[Eddie Teach]

Higher living standard does not equal success nor happiness. Never has. Never will, actually.

Perhaps not, but lower living standard does tend to equal unhappiness, at least for those aware of it.

[jimmy olsen]

Very muddled argument.

As this process unfolded, humanity prospered. Ten thousand years ago, when the planet's population was 6 million or so, people lived about 30 years on average and supported themselves on the equivalent income of about $2 per day.

Thing is, the life expectancy and income levels were basically the same c. 1800, albeit with a larger population.  Even in the most develped parts of the world (Western Europe) life expectancy was around 40 or so and income levels in the range of $3-4 per day.

Almost all of the progress in living standards in all of world history has occured in the last 200 years, and the bulk of that has occurred since 1950.

I'm pretty sure a subsistence farmer in 1800 had a higher living standard than a hunter gatherer who lived 10,000 years ago.

I know I am going to hate myself in the morning but here it goes.

Why do you think that timmay?  Hunter gatherers were healthier and lived longer than the farmers that settled the first cities.

Yeah, so what? We aren't talking about the inhabitants of the first cities nine thousand years ago, we're talking about people who live in the 19th century.

People with steel tools, and vastly more sophisticated architecture and agriculture.

[The Minsky Moment]

An actual subsistence farmer in 1800 - say a Russian serf or a Chinese peasant - would probably not have a materially higher standard of living then an Old Stone Age hunter-gatherer.  For the reasons Ideologue suggests, it might have been lower.  The fact that such a farmer might have access to tools with which he would do more work and yet receive less nutritive benefit is not a plus.