Billionaires aren’t new. I also don’t really think LLMs will be as impactful as they get hyped or feared to be, and actually think AI as a whole outside mere chatbots will be positive if not the revolution it gets hyped as.

Honestly I do think there has been an improvement. It might not seem like that when viewing the past, but the past is easy to overestimate- we don’t have to live it anymore.

As to civil rights, it should be pointed out that while recent years have seen regression in the US, its not always a regression to the point that things were at back then, and more importantly, the rest of the world does not necessarily share the political woes of the US.

I guess it depends on the person. 30 years ago, I was actually living and working in the US. I was driving a 1988 Volvo 760. I was still driving it 10 years later; best car I’ve ever had. Gas was under a buck. Interest rates were so high that once I got some savings, I lived off the interest and ended up saving 80% of my salary (years later, when the rates went down, I used those savings as a down payment for my house). I could get lost for a full day at Borders. I was able to hitchhike up the east coast, get odd jobs without any resumes or background checks, while on a road trip across the continent. There was a lot of new and exciting technology: CD’s and discmen, computers and the beginnings of the Internet. I read the news via Gopher (unless it was Sunday, then I bought the papers for grocery coupons). I feel that now there are too many limits on people. Lots of them are self-inflicted: I’m middle aged and with kids, so I need to be far more responsible. But when I look at my kids, I feel that they won’t have the same opportunities I had, for travel, education, personal growth, or independence.

Yes. You can fit all the great music from the 90s and before in your pocket now. You can also get newer music if you want but it’s up to you. Lemmy is better than a lot of the old forums.

You don’t have to use social media, I don’t. Information is far more available now than it was 30 years ago.

A few technological aspects of life are incredibly easier and more accessible. We have instant access to any form of information, from porn to encyclopedia articles. Comparing prices and ordering things - commonly called “mail order” 30 years ago - took weeks compared to a couple days now. Communication is far easier and cheaper - talking between San Francisco and Stockholm or Singapore would have cost several dollars per minute 30 years ago, and now it’s a built-in feature of network access. Most of us have in our pockets a telephone, photo/video camera, advanced computer, entertainment and game console. There have also been some notable medical advances - my friend died from leukemia in the 90s, and it’s very treatable now, along with various kinds of tumors.

Yes, 30 years ago the AIDS crisis was still going strong and, in the US at least, same-gender relationships were illegal and the LGBT community didn’t have a right to work, and on top of that same-sex marriage was illegal. A lot of rights are rolled into marriage, including the ability to remain at the bedside of your loved-one when they are at the hospital or on their deathbed, arranging and/or attending your partner’s funeral, and being allowed to remain in your house after your spouse dies. Through the 80s and 90s, gay men were losing partners left and right and some were kicked out of their partners’ funerals and then kicked out of the house they had lived in for decades because the title was in their partner’s name since they couldn’t sign together.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was also started in 1994.

Same sex relationships weren’t made legal until June 26, 2003 (Lawrence v TX) Same Sex Marriage on June 26, 2015 (Hodges v Obergefell) Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace was barred in the US June 15, 2020 (Bostock v Clayton)

Even with all the holes Republicans drilled into it, the Affordable Care Act helps many people get health insurance. We also have medication that prevents the transmission of HIV and that prevents the onset of AIDS, saving many lives.

In 1995, the internet was in its infancy, at least compared to today and was largely text-based. If a website had a bunch of pictures, it took take 5-15 minutes to load depending on your location, provided nobody killed the connection with an incoming call.

Sure the mindset nowadays is much more pessimistic, even thought the ruling class from the 90s is aging out of power. We just need people ready to push us forward as more of the silent generation and baby boomer politicians leave office.

Everyone’s experience will be personal to them, so it’s not anyone’s place to say your experience isn’t worse, but as a whole, things are better.

Crime, no matter the category, is down ~33% since the mid-90s.
Median household income, adjusted for inflation, is up ~25% (despite the narrative).

Here’s a post/graph I think about all the time: https://bsky.app/profile/simongerman600.bsky.social/post/3ktds56nqus25

Regardless of age, we are generally nostalgic for a time in our youth. Or even earlier. Notice that something like half (or nearly so) of people think “the most moral society” was before they were born.

Medical technology has greatly improved. More people survive cancer, aids, surgery is far less invasive, and better medications.

Technology in general is getting better.

We have a faster internet. I love having access to so much information. Sure, there are far more gullible fools who believe in all manner of silly stuff but I feel the internet has done more good than bad.

The sheer amount of street level crimes, bar fights, car break-ins that existed in those days would blow your mind. Things have changed so much and yet everyone seems to have forgotten. I can’t speek for the ‘worst’ neighbourhoods in the US nowadays but back in the 70s - 80s whole sections of US cities were shitholes. Media make’s everything look way worse than reality.

We drag them to the future. There is no other direction.

Some of this is just the noise that society makes though.

Our billionaires have a lot of power, but I don’t think they’re near the Robber Barrons of the US past. The LLMs are trash, but your boss used to put who you should vote for in your paycheck and the only media that existed was sole property of big business.

I’ll grant that the last few decades have been rough, but it beats the past.

Just gotta keep moving.

Crime in 1995 was…let’s just say… fucking worse in virtually every category…by a lot. Waco and ruby ridge had just happened. As for poverty, there are the same number of people on poverty in 2023 a there were in 1995. Let’s talk violence against women. It’s tragic today at shockingly high rates. It was much worse in 1995.

Don’t be a woman, or a non white man, or poor, or non cis and you are probably just fine back in 1995.

…cept for abortion. Fuck Trump.

Violent crime is down. Smoking is down. Teenage pregnancy is down.

That’s about all I’ve got.

For most of the world’s population, things have significantly improved by almost every conceivable measure.

I strongly recommend Roslings book, Factfulness. The difference between how people think things have changed and what’s happened is wild.

Edit: Just saw the (US tag, sorry.)

That all depends on the people. Many numbers in many places are far better than they were three decades ago. I could make a list, but so can you, so why bother.

For LGBTQ rights? Definitely. For the climate? Way worse. Politically? Way worse. Economically… I’d way we are in a big bubble like the roaring 20s before the great depression. And when it pops, it’s gonna be bad, thanks to idiot voters and corrupt Republicans.

Government-wise…things are not looking good. It will take a very long time to rebuild.

Now…state-wise, I know my state is way better off than it was 30 years ago, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t about to get slammed by braindead antics of the federal government. But we have made a lot of infrastructure investments that are paying off locally. The future of America will be exclusively in states that put a premium on science and progress.

Since it hasn’t been mentioned, one thing that I am truly thankful for that we have improved since the 1990s is public smoking. Not having to be prepared for the reek of cigarettes in virtually every public space is such a big win.

Hell, in 1990, which is 35 years ago, you could still smoke on airplanes in the US. Airplanes! Can you imagine flying back then? Your neighbor could light up and there was nothing you could do but sit there and stew in the smoke stream. I’m glad I never had to experience flying with smoke but I had my fair share of being forced to sit in smoking sections of restaurants until my teenage years.