SciFiFisher wrote:I wonder what the relative quality of life is for the majority of the people? There have been a couple of articles recently showing that the relative quality of life today is far better than it was 200 years ago, etc, etc.
Wouldn't that actually be the "absolute" quality of life? Of course, it's qualitative not quantitative, and the Hedonic Treadmill factors in. But yeah, generally a lot is better - or has the capacity to be better - because it's been built up on foundational institutions and their many singularities.
There is always the possibility that expanding the construction beyond what the foundation can hold allows the possibility of collapse. Some may think we're teetering on the brink, but it's more like we're beyond the brink, teetering at the end of a cantilever outside the footprint of the foundation. We may want to set down a new foundation, or a secondary foundation point. Or we could build up from the foundation enough for cable-staid support. Right now we're building up and out without the top extending cables of support to those at the expanding bottom. Those at the top and bottom think the other needs more integrity, but what they need is to work together for "Tensegrity."