We’ve almost caused, and now will forever have the capacity to cause, a mass extinction event with nuclear bombs. If the cold war had turned hot we probably wouldn’t be saying the industrial revolution was “worth it”.
There’s also the more slow motion extinction event in the form of climate change.
But yes for those living in the west from 1950 ~ 2150 it’s a good deal
To quote Zhou Enlai when asked in 1968 about the impacts of the French revolution “it’s too early to say”
Only if you’re basing your assertion on inherently biased criteria. For many in the west it’s better sure, but what about the majority of people in impoverished countries, or less fortunate people in general? How about non-human species that have been losing their natural habitats to pollution and global warming inch by inch, or just human interference in general? Or even species that have been outright driven to extinction by human activity?
I’m not so sure any of that is worth it for a new smart phone every year with only marginally better features. And I hear the new hyped-up technology is pretty much the epitome of an infinite amount of monkeys on typewriters desperate to type up Shakespeare.
Again, that’s only from your (biased) viewpoint. I’m sure you or I can say that with relatively little consideration from our cushy positions in wealthy countries, but try and get, say, the average Sudanese citizen to agree with that. It’s really not gonna work.
Plus to agree with your sentiment is to say that capitalism is worth the suffering it causes. I’m gonna have to disagree with that on principle.
Are you sure? There are an order of magnitude more people around now. And most are still not doing great. So now we have a massive explosion in the net amount of suffering in order to boost the joy of a few people by a few bits.
We are undeniably better off because of the industrial revolution. It’s caused problems but those are well worth it for the benefit.
Right now*
We’ve almost caused, and now will forever have the capacity to cause, a mass extinction event with nuclear bombs. If the cold war had turned hot we probably wouldn’t be saying the industrial revolution was “worth it”.
There’s also the more slow motion extinction event in the form of climate change.
But yes for those living in the west from 1950 ~ 2150 it’s a good deal
To quote Zhou Enlai when asked in 1968 about the impacts of the French revolution “it’s too early to say”
We are currently experiencing a mass extinction event on a similar scale but greater speed than the Permian mass extinction.
CURRENTLY. It is getting worse.
Only if you’re basing your assertion on inherently biased criteria. For many in the west it’s better sure, but what about the majority of people in impoverished countries, or less fortunate people in general? How about non-human species that have been losing their natural habitats to pollution and global warming inch by inch, or just human interference in general? Or even species that have been outright driven to extinction by human activity?
I’m not so sure any of that is worth it for a new smart phone every year with only marginally better features. And I hear the new hyped-up technology is pretty much the epitome of an infinite amount of monkeys on typewriters desperate to type up Shakespeare.
Of course these people benefited too. Why do you demography in Asia/Africa boomed over the last century?
Yes humans suck. There was much more of this before the industrial revolution.
Again, that’s only from your (biased) viewpoint. I’m sure you or I can say that with relatively little consideration from our cushy positions in wealthy countries, but try and get, say, the average Sudanese citizen to agree with that. It’s really not gonna work.
Plus to agree with your sentiment is to say that capitalism is worth the suffering it causes. I’m gonna have to disagree with that on principle.
Are you sure? There are an order of magnitude more people around now. And most are still not doing great. So now we have a massive explosion in the net amount of suffering in order to boost the joy of a few people by a few bits.
What the fuck do you think life was like in the middle ages?
Hard? But I tell you what, no subscriptions.
Socialism has been the death of more people mainly because of Capitalist sanctions/meddling to make it fail.
would the children working in sweat shops in … rolls dice … the US agree with this?
Wait till you hear about slave labor conditions
which was (the american , british, “modern era” version) …done under capitalism.