Will our children have better lives than us?

[Donkey]

Will new technology take the world forward and improve quality of life for everybody, or will environmental and economic problems bring an end to the golden age of the Western world?

I personally think the world is already down spiralling. the 90s were some of the best years the world has ever seen, and then 9/11 happened, causing countless wars in the middle east and raising fear across the UK, US and other Westernized countries with the introduction of terrorism acts and making islamophobia a popular ideology. :rolleyes:

[trooneh]

Personally, I'm not sure. Perhaps things will deteriorate, as they did in the Western world after Rome fell. Perhaps things will not deteriorate. People thought the world was in a downward spiral with the depravity of the Holocaust, but here we are sixty years later having a similar conversation. Technology has changed things a lot.

[embers]

Lol.

No.

[Genghis Khan]

I've made it a goal to punch every smiling kid in the face to prove that they will not have better lives than us. I've currently skipped 7 court summons during this journey. No regrets. Except for that one person I punched who I thought was a child but turned out to be a midget, that I regret.

[ShatteredGlass]

The quality of a child's life depends upon the love of a parent. Our children will have better lives than us if we love them unconditionally.

[AmusedDJ]

if we can turn it around, or be the oppisite of our dumbass parents, then yeah. But as of right now i dont think the world has a gright future at all

[aperson444]

Nope. Economy will collapse, governments will continue their wars and monopolies will form over basic human needs. Maybe the rich and the gifted (i.e living in developed countries in areas with no problems) will live good lives, but honestly I only see dystopia in the future.

Then again, most people usually refer to me as a pessimist, so I may be wrong.

[RoseyCadaver]

I don't see it the end of the of all good things ,no.But I do think the West will lose some of its luxuries,and they won't have it "as good".

All though me personally,who is to say possessions or the economy is what will make our children have good lives?What ever happened to family bonding,being in touch with one selves, and enjoying what you have?

Life with technologies or even advanced health care =/= happy life .

[Hyper]

No they wont and I doubt my senior years will be very humble either.

I just can't be an optimist.. But if I were to force a little bit of butterflies out of my heart and some rainbows I would dare say MAYBE my grand children or rather great grand children MIGHT live a better life but that is what I consider to be a 1 out of 2.7 billion shot.

[Love.Hate]

I don't think it will be better for them, the rate of unemployment is ever increasing, university fees have gone up, the cost of living is so expensive, if this generation are going to struggle in modern society, what is it going to be like in 20 years time. I cannot be optimistic about this.

They will have more advanced technology, yes but will that mean their lives are better? I don't think so.

[Sadworld]

I agree with Fran, they might have better technology but does that make their future better?

I say no. People imagine the future with this high tech gadgets but the martial things doesn't make the future. What makes the future is the people and their philosophy. What is a future with flying cars and robots with greedy and selfish people? A worst future. But what is future with no cars and no internet with good neighbors? A better one.

People should stop thinking a material world but more on how one can be nice. Teach our children how to be nice. We don't need to be a messiah or martyr, just friendly. Then our children will have a good future.

Right now, there is too much fear so being friendly gonna be hard thing to do. But hey some people just know how to push back and conflict arises. It's human nature I guess.

[Peace God]

Geez not one person yet? I think so. I believe that we've had better lives than our parents and I don't see why we're the peak generation and it's all downhill from here. Ok, the economy doesn't look stable and there's political turmoil in some parts of the world. Oh wow that's never happened before and it's just sooo fucking impossible to recover from. Give me a break.

A lot of improvements to our society can and will be made. Plus half of you guy's arguments and concerns could've been stated 50 years ago.

...not buying it.

Edit: Oh and I don't wanna here this moral deterioration crap about how the modern age will turn us all into soulless robots. Complete bullshit.

[Sadworld]

Geez not one person yet? I think so. I believe that we've had better lives than our parents and I don't see why we're the peak generation and it's all downhill from here. Ok, the economy doesn't look stable and there's political turmoil in some parts of the world. Oh wow that's never happened before and it's just sooo fucking impossible to recover from. Give me a break.

A lot of improvements to our society can and will be made. Plus half of you guy's arguments and concerns could've been stated 50 years ago.

...not buying it.

Edit: Oh and I don't wanna here this moral deterioration crap about how the modern age will turn us all into soulless robots. Complete bullshit.


True, we have better lives then our parents but we also lost something. Our morals and priorities change. I didn't said that things will crumble, I said it'll be base upon our philosophy. The economy can be fixed, everything can be fixed but the mindset of the people, our children is my concern.

Imagine this, a parent teaches a child to hate black or be an islamaphobe. The child can grow up to different ways. The first way is he will hate black/muslims because his father told him. Then his sons/daughters will learn that from and so on and on. No imagine a group of this children becomes world leaders, where would be the world right now? No matter how good they are with the economy it is no a good future.

The second way is the child realize his father is wrong and believes everybody equal. His sons and daughters learn from him. These children becomes world leaders. Is it now a better future? I believe so.

The question: Will our children have a better future? It depends on us future parents and what we teach our children.

[Peace God]

True, we have better lives then our parents but we also lost something. Our morals and priorities change. I didn't said that things will crumble, I said it'll be base upon our philosophy. The economy can be fixed, everything can be fixed but the mindset of the people, our children is my concern.
Ha. Yeah god forbid we change. Don't you think we should be able to develop our own mindsets, morals and ideologies?

Imagine this, a parent teaches a child to hate black or be an islamaphobe. The child can grow up to different ways. The first way is he will hate black/muslims because his father told him. Then his sons/daughters will learn that from and so on and on. No imagine a group of this children becomes world leaders, where would be the world right now? No matter how good they are with the economy it is no a good future.

The second way is the child realize his father is wrong and believes everybody equal. His sons and daughters learn from him. These children becomes world leaders. Is it now a better future? I believe so.

The question: Will our children have a better future? It depends on us future parents and what we teach our children.
Really? Racism and bigotry? One of the best things about the future is that it declines. Do you realize what we're doing right now? We're actually talking about this right now. You are on the other side of the planet right now and I'm having a conversation about this with you.

This is what I mean about viewing this from a moral stand point. We're the smartest genaration yet.

[Jess]

I really don't think so. unless we can pull out of this economic crisis...it'll be a struggle

[Sadworld]

Ha. Yeah god forbid we change. Don't you think we should be able to develop our own mindsets, morals and ideologies?

Really? Racism and bigotry? One of the best things about the future is that it declines. Do you realize what we're doing right now? We're actually talking about this right now. You are on the other side of the planet right now and I'm having a conversation about this with you.

This is what I mean about viewing this from a moral stand point. We're the smartest genaration yet.

Well, I didn't say that we shouldn't change. I'm just pointing out how our future will base upon how we change. And for the smartest generation we're making some stupid mistakes, old and new ones.

Either way, my point is the future is base on our morals and no one can predict the future. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

[CaptainObvious]

Will new technology take the world forward and improve quality of life for everybody, or will environmental and economic problems bring an end to the golden age of the Western world?

I personally think the world is already down spiralling. the 90s were some of the best years the world has ever seen, and then 9/11 happened, causing countless wars in the middle east and raising fear across the UK, US and other Westernized countries with the introduction of terrorism acts and making islamophobia a popular ideology. :rolleyes:

by any realistic metric, i disagree. you are, like many others, nostalgic for the 1990s for no good reason. in your case this is especially true, since you weren't realistically aware of what the 1990s were actually like, being 0-4 years old during that time.

globally, we are better off now than ever before by every metric except possibly our global climate situation and overpopulation. global quality of living, global gdp per capita, etc. etc. are all higher today than they were during the 1990s.

what i think is more interesting is what causes this kind of nostalgic myopia. the 90s had lots of wars, and massive genocides on a scale not seen since (rwanda, the balkans). why do you pay less attention to those than the two frankly not particularly horrible major wars we had this last decade? why do you discount the immense strides the arab world has made at a speed heretofore unprecedented, in the last year?

as with almost every generation in human history, our children are far more likely to have better lives than us than to have worse lives. now, this is all true on global aggregate. the massive, rising tide of developing nations pulling millions or billions out of poverty and into the world market might mean that historically privileged developed nations lose some ground. that still makes us, on the whole, better off than previously. we just might not all be better off. but we probably will - a rising tide lifts all boats, as they say.

[Donkey]

by any realistic metric, i disagree. you are, like many others, nostalgic for the 1990s for no good reason. in your case this is especially true, since you weren't realistically aware of what the 1990s were actually like, being 0-4 years old during that time.

globally, we are better off now than ever before by every metric except possibly our global climate situation and overpopulation. global quality of living, global gdp per capita, etc. etc. are all higher today than they were during the 1990s.

what i think is more interesting is what causes this kind of nostalgic myopia. the 90s had lots of wars, and massive genocides on a scale not seen since (rwanda, the balkans). why do you pay less attention to those than the two frankly not particularly horrible major wars we had this last decade? why do you discount the immense strides the arab world has made at a speed heretofore unprecedented, in the last year?

as with almost every generation in human history, our children are far more likely to have better lives than us than to have worse lives. now, this is all true on global aggregate. the massive, rising tide of developing nations pulling millions or billions out of poverty and into the world market might mean that historically privileged developed nations lose some ground. that still makes us, on the whole, better off than previously. we just might not all be better off. but we probably will - a rising tide lifts all boats, as they say.

I think my nostalgia for the 90s may be due to the fact I measure quality of life by the average number of roller discos each person attends :yummy:

But yeah, actually, this was the kind of response I made this thread for - I don't know huge amounts about the subject so I'm interested. I think these are the main reasons why I don't think quality of life has decreased since the 90s:


Mainly a UK issue, but a lot of the community style life of the 90s has been lost. I've heard it many times from my elders and the more conservative ones attribute the issue to immigrants in and taking over the communities and replacing our culture with theirs. Many argue multiculturalism is going too far and the British culture is being lost. But alas, a UK issue.
9/11. I mentioned it earlier - we've never had to live under fear from terrorist attacks like this. All of the airport security checks etc. make for people to be scared of a terrorist attack which isn't a good thing at all.
The result is the installation of millions of CCTV cameras to watch everyone - everyone is a suspect; everyone may as well be a criminal. More and more innocent people are being watched - that doesn't help quality of life at all.


It is my view that technology doesn't progress the world forward - actually in my opinion technology worsens quality of life. We spend more time using gadgets than bonding and interacting with those around us and everybody is the same - including me. Some technology does improve quality of life, e.g. running water and central heating but we've already got what we need to be comfortable. We've had it for decades. Now we are going about creating more things that are making us lazier and in many ways, less human (WALL-E)

Another UK issue I admit, but other countries will have to do exactly the same are government cuts. We're going to feel it here in the UK. The cuts are going across the education, health, policing and environmental systems and will literally mean that we get worse service, bottom line. Our good economic times have more or less come to an end and the Western world will have to pass that trophy to China who, due to the Communist government and lack of liberal policies, can use all of the coal and energy they want and pay people pittance while being the worlds biggest exporter.

And then there's Africa. These countries are still paying back their loans to us. The World Back is holding them from development and the World Bank operates in the Western world's capitalist interests, holding back development for countries that need to - human beings that need running water and food are being malnourished simply due to our greedy capitalist system.

I don't know whether things will be better in the future: I'm confident that the UK is going downhill due to our economic and cultural issues, however maybe other countries will experience greater quality of life in the future. I don't think I can be sure, but my feeling is that the world isn't going to progress much further than it has done.

I can see the greatest leap forward and advancement in humanity being space exploration being made available to all and humans spreading out. That is where technology is useful and that is where, in the far far future, things are likely to get much better.

[Peace God]

And for the smartest generation we're making some stupid mistakes, old and new ones.
Like?

Either way, my point is the future is base on our morals and no one can predict the future. Hope for the best and prepare for the best and prepare for the worst. I'll take modern over traditional "morals" any day. You suggest that our moral outlook isn't good but do you really think the past is the place to look for improvement? The past has some of the most horrific "morals" ever. I mean really, just a generation or two ago, most societies would've found like 10 different reasons to chop my head off for even existing. Sure "chivalry wasn't dead" but neither was treating your dog better than your wife.

[CaptainObvious]

Mainly a UK issue, but a lot of the community style life of the 90s has been lost. I've heard it many times from my elders and the more conservative ones attribute the issue to immigrants in and taking over the communities and replacing our culture with theirs. Many argue multiculturalism is going too far and the British culture is being lost. But alas, a UK issue.

this, again, is an issue of nostalgia and proper assessment. you say that "community style life [...] has been lost" as if that's fact, when in reality it's probably just yet another reflection of nostalgia, in this case on the part of older people who are telling you that.

nostalgia is a pervasive confounding mental influence, not to be underestimated in its ability to make a person gloss over the bad and accentuate the good in the past.

9/11. I mentioned it earlier - we've never had to live under fear from terrorist attacks like this. All of the airport security checks etc. make for people to be scared of a terrorist attack which isn't a good thing at all.

do you really live in fear of terrorists? i feel bad for those who do, since by any realistic assessment the danger to the average westerner from a terrorist attack is less than that from, say, traffic accidents.

all i can say is that if you or others do live in fear of terrorists, you shouldn't. they're not actually that dangerous.

The result is the installation of millions of CCTV cameras to watch everyone - everyone is a suspect; everyone may as well be a criminal. More and more innocent people are being watched - that doesn't help quality of life at all.

this particular one is completely specific to the uk, which has by far the most public surveillance in the world. i think it's abhorrent and objectionable, but that problem is more or less exclusive to your country at this point in time.

It is my view that technology doesn't progress the world forward - actually in my opinion technology worsens quality of life. We spend more time using gadgets than bonding and interacting with those around us and everybody is the same - including me. Some technology does improve quality of life, e.g. running water and central heating but we've already got what we need to be comfortable. We've had it for decades. Now we are going about creating more things that are making us lazier and in many ways, less human (WALL-E)

not to be trite, but absent technological advances of the last decade and a bit, we wouldn't even be able to have this conversation in this milieu (i was going to use the word forum, but i'm trying to cut down on punning :P). would you instead be discussing it with people in real life? maybe, but it's not fair to pigeonhole all technology as weakening interpersonal bonds when in fact much of the rise of the internet over the last decade has done the opposite. i am more able to closely interact with friends now than i have ever been in my life, because of the enormous panoply of tools that have arisen to perform exactly that function.

Another UK issue I admit, but other countries will have to do exactly the same are government cuts. We're going to feel it here in the UK. The cuts are going across the education, health, policing and environmental systems and will literally mean that we get worse service, bottom line. Our good economic times have more or less come to an end and the Western world will have to pass that trophy to China who, due to the Communist government and lack of liberal policies, can use all of the coal and energy they want and pay people pittance while being the worlds biggest exporter.

yes, the level of socialism in many parts of the western world is untenable, since it was based on an economic model in which much of the world - the poor nations - were essentially subsistence farmers that did not compete in the world economy. now you'll have to compete, globally.

that doesn't at all mean "good economic times have more or less come to an end" though - cheap labor doesn't stay cheap forever and already chinese manufacturing is becoming less competitive on the world stage as their workers become more aware and demand higher pay and benefits. this story will repeat itself throughout the developing world.

fundamentally, though, if your point is that your particular subet of humanity, i.e. rich people from rich countries (relative to the world as a whole) might get somewhat worse off... yeah, it might. i take a broader view of "our children" that includes all of humanity. humanity, as a whole, is indisputably improving its lot.

And then there's Africa. These countries are still paying back their loans to us. The World Back is holding them from development and the World Bank operates in the Western world's capitalist interests, holding back development for countries that need to - human beings that need running water and food are being malnourished simply due to our greedy capitalist system.

africa sucks. but it sucks less today than at any time in the past. thus, it's better off.

I don't know whether things will be better in the future: I'm confident that the UK is going downhill due to our economic and cultural issues, however maybe other countries will experience greater quality of life in the future. I don't think I can be sure, but my feeling is that the world isn't going to progress much further than it has done.

i am quite confident in saying that the uk's quality of life will improve in the long run, just like in essentially every country.

[Donkey]

this, again, is an issue of nostalgia and proper assessment. you say that "community style life [...] has been lost" as if that's fact, when in reality it's probably just yet another reflection of nostalgia, in this case on the part of older people who are telling you that.

nostalgia is a pervasive confounding mental influence, not to be underestimated in its ability to make a person gloss over the bad and accentuate the good in the past.
Yeah but is there a better way of measuring quality of life than the opinions of those affected by themselves. If more people are fed up and feel their cultural heritage has been lost, surely there is a decline in the overall quality of life? Whether statistics support that or not, or whether it is simply nostalgia - if people feel bad about that then there's a problem.

I'm not sure the issue is entirely nostalgia anyhow, younger generations also feel dismayed at how multicultural Britain has become. I'm not in support of that argument, but there is a large consensus in the UK that immigrants are bad and have been taking their jobs, etc. It's not true - immigrants actually in most cases help the UK but if it makes people upset then they have a worse quality of life.

do you really live in fear of terrorists? i feel bad for those who do, since by any realistic assessment the danger to the average westerner from a terrorist attack is less than that from, say, traffic accidents.

all i can say is that if you or others do live in fear of terrorists, you shouldn't. they're not actually that dangerous.
I personally do not live in fear of terrorists :) I feel if I watched BBC News as much as some do and didn't think about things so much, I might live in fear of terrorists. The point is that it's an issue for other people. I know people who refuse to use public transport or use airplanes due to terrorist threats - once again, it's illogical but if people feel that way then it worsens their quality of life.

The ability to travel overseas with ease and the great technology greatly increases the risk of war in general: that includes terrorism. The nuclear threat is another huge issue that I'm talking about here; when countries like North Korea have access to nuclear weaponry there is a huge danger. The better technology, the greater risk from being attacked.

this particular one is completely specific to the uk, which has by far the most public surveillance in the world. i think it's abhorrent and objectionable, but that problem is more or less exclusive to your country at this point in time.
I do not doubt that the amount of public surveillance will increase in all Westernized countries. I acknowledge the UK has the biggest problem right now though, yup.

not to be trite, but absent technological advances of the last decade and a bit, we wouldn't even be able to have this conversation in this milieu (i was going to use the word forum, but i'm trying to cut down on punning :P). would you instead be discussing it with people in real life? maybe, but it's not fair to pigeonhole all technology as weakening interpersonal bonds when in fact much of the rise of the internet over the last decade has done the opposite. i am more able to closely interact with friends now than i have ever been in my life, because of the enormous panoply of tools that have arisen to perform exactly that function.
That's true: but is Internet communication so enjoyable or as close as real human interaction. There is the rate at which you can talk to people, which yes, has increased - you can talk to people more often on the Internet now. There is, however, the quality and the meaningfulness of that conversation. I believe that conversation between two humans is by far the greatest type and that in Western countries we are beginning not to cherish that so much. It's only my opinion though; some people may believe the exact opposite so I don't think I can really make that point.


yes, the level of socialism in many parts of the western world is untenable, since it was based on an economic model in which much of the world - the poor nations - were essentially subsistence farmers that did not compete in the world economy. now you'll have to compete, globally.

that doesn't at all mean "good economic times have more or less come to an end" though - cheap labor doesn't stay cheap forever and already chinese manufacturing is becoming less competitive on the world stage as their workers become more aware and demand higher pay and benefits. this story will repeat itself throughout the developing world.
yep. Agree with you there.

fundamentally, though, if your point is that your particular subet of humanity, i.e. rich people from rich countries (relative to the world as a whole) might get somewhat worse off... yeah, it might. i take a broader view of "our children" that includes all of humanity. humanity, as a whole, is indisputably improving its lot.
Perhaps I am making the point that people like you and I will be hit. It is the middle class people that I am making most of my arguments in relation to, which is perhaps quite selfish. However the question was: "will our children have better lives than us?" I think I kind of assumed we were all talking about the same demographic so let me clarify - I'm mainly talking about middle class people in the Western world.

africa sucks. but it sucks less today than at any time in the past. thus, it's better off.
Slave traders in North Africa used to have British slaves. But is Africa getting better? There are certainly some richer people in Africa now and South Africa has made huge developments; but in the worse countries, Nigeria or Uganda, there is still a huge amount of people under the poverty line. I don't think they're seeing any change: it's just a select amount of people that are getting lucky.

i am quite confident in saying that the uk's quality of life will improve in the long run, just like in essentially every country.
I can't have the same confidence I'm afraid. I expect it'll just fluctuate with time, and will get worse in the next few years especially (mainly economic in the UK. but, I don't have a crystal ball. I really don't know what will happen from now and neither do you. Things could get much, much better with the world in general or there could be disastrous consequences from modern weaponry and such.

[thatfatguy]

Will new technology take the world forward and improve quality of life for everybody, or will environmental and economic problems bring an end to the golden age of the Western world?

I personally think the world is already down spiralling. the 90s were some of the best years the world has ever seen, and then 9/11 happened, causing countless wars in the middle east and raising fear across the UK, US and other Westernized countries with the introduction of terrorism acts and making islamophobia a popular ideology. :rolleyes:

I think this country is done for judging by how idiotic the majority of our generation is.