Is it better to be born now or then?

[ivor bigun]

13 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

It's the mind playing tricks.

We are wired to forget the negatives, and our youth always seems better than it really was.

The best time in life is NOW ????

 

My youth was really really good ,so much fun ,so much exploring , and my family were not badly off .

[Orton Rd]

2 minutes ago, baansgr said:

I wouldnt say it was all Golden...Thatcher and her recession ruined my life for three years and the 4 year apprenticship I secured, mortgage interest rates at 15%...even an ex rental TV cost almost 300 quid...it wasn't all good and holding down three jobs, working 12/14 hours a day 6/7 days a week to meet mortgage and poll tax bills wasn't easy, not forgetting negative equity on properties for 7 years....people have very short memories I'm afraid..

Thatchers recession? must have missed that, 15% interest rates came and went over night as did the poll tax. She enriched the poor more than any before her with the right to buy, biggest wealth distribution in British history.

[mauGR1]

1 minute ago, ivor bigun said:

My youth was really really good ,so much fun ,so much exploring , and my family were not badly off .

Same here, if i have a complain, it's my parents giving me too much freedom.

Later in life i had to do some hard work to impose some discipline onto myself... Not that i've been very successful..

[ivor bigun]

3 minutes ago, baansgr said:

I wouldnt say it was all Golden...Thatcher and her recession ruined my life for three years and the 4 year apprenticship I secured, mortgage interest rates at 15%...even an ex rental TV cost almost 300 quid...it wasn't all good and holding down three jobs, working 12/14 hours a day 6/7 days a week to meet mortgage and poll tax bills wasn't easy, not forgetting negative equity on properties for 7 years....people have very short memories I'm afraid..

I loved the Thatcher years ,,i had a job as a shop manager ,earned a fair salery working 8/9 hours a day ,,so we had negative equity for a few years ,it was my home ,not a way to make money ,,interest rates 15% ,ok but not for long ,as for poll tax ,pity we dont still have it ,much fairer .ex rental tv was about 70quid ,i know ,i was selling them ,no way 300 quid .much better times ,people have ,short and twisted memories i fear .

wish we had Thatcher now ,

[JWRC]

In a nutshell I am glad to be on my way out, not just arriving.

[baansgr]

2 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Thatchers recession? must have missed that, 15% interest rates came and went over night as did the poll tax. She enriched the poor more than any before her with the right to buy, biggest wealth distribution in British history.

You cant remember the 3,500,000 unemployed in the early eighties.....mortgage rates were very high, 15%, 13% 11%..throughout the late eighties and early nineties...poll tax then changed to council tax which meant my previous rateable  value still doubled. As for the sale of social/council housing, it may well have enriched a few but inflicted on the life of generations 

[Tayaout]

I'm an old millennial. I learned to code at 8 years old then I saw the emergence of the Internet. I was told by the older generation that lost it all in the dotcom bubble that my skills had no future.

 

I'm stubborn and didn't listen. I understood that to get total freedom all my business had to be virtual. It worked well for me.

 

I have no regret being born in the 80s. I've seen and experienced the old world without cellphone and I understand the new world better than most. 

 

I would say the only thing I missed was the music, sex and drugs scene of the 60-70s on the west coast of the US. The backpacking in India, Afghanistan and SE Asia at that time. I have some friends who lived throught it and it must have been some glorious time. 

 

BTW even if my lifestyle depends a lot about technology, I enjoy disconnecting on a multi day mountain hike, gardening and reading real books. I can also build stuff with my hand but did not enjoy working a physical job when a tried for a short time. 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Tayaout

[1FinickyOne]

or to never have been born at all? but, who could be so lucky? 1 in a million perhaps.. 

[Orton Rd]

14 minutes ago, baansgr said:

You cant remember the 3,500,000 unemployed in the early eighties.....mortgage rates were very high, 15%, 13% 11%..throughout the late eighties and early nineties...poll tax then changed to council tax which meant my previous rateable  value still doubled. As for the sale of social/council housing, it may well have enriched a few but inflicted on the life of generations 

The disastrous legacy of the labour years in the 70's of strikes, 4 day weeks, powers cuts, inflation and dead bodies left un burried did take a few years to sort out, but she did it bless her. Right to buy enriched millions of working class people who the socialists would prefer to have been kept poor- Baroness Thatcher the best post war prime minister, so far.

[ivor bigun]

2 minutes ago, Tayaout said:

I'm an old millennial. I learned to code at 8 years old then I saw the emergence of the Internet. I was told by the older generation that lost it all in the dotcom bubble that my skills had no future.

 

I'm stubborn and didn't listen. I understood that to get total freedom all my business had to be virtual. It worked well for me.

 

I have no regret being born in the 80s. I've seen and experienced the old world without cellphone and I understand the new world better than most. 

 

I would say the only thing I missed was the music, sex and drugs scene of the 60-70s on the west coast of the US. The backpacking in India, Afghanistan and SE Asia at that time. I have some friends who lived throught it and it must have been some glorious time. 

You should have been in London in the late 60s early 70s ,wow,what times ,i mixed with people you only hear about today and the parties,wow ,life was a blast ,and spent time with a girlfriend and another couple,driving all over Europe , 

[Orton Rd]

2 minutes ago, ivor bigun said:

You should have been in London in the late 60s early 70s ,wow,what times ,i mixed with people you only hear about today and the parties,wow ,life was a blast ,and spent time with a girlfriend and another couple,driving all over Europe , 

No HIV no bloody mobile phones and the girls looked like girls. Everyone was so better dressed back then, look at some material on YT of London in the 60's seems like another world. The past really is another country as far as the UK is concerned.

[kingstonkid]

Let's me think LOL

 

Went to school and teachers actually taught and we learned

Biggest worry on the street was whether we were going to p
lay hockey on the road or if a backyard was frozen enough

Out the door at 9 and back around 4 

no car no problem just use thumb we did not have to worry about other people.

Yes we had TV but we still had books that we read.

The biggest worry at school was passing yes there were bullies but they got dealt with

Fighting was ok if it was fair.

You never hit a girl but a girl would never hit you

Short skirts

non of this plastic <deleted> toys and things were built to last.

PC was a political party not some way you had to be

You could protest and no one got angry at you

Schools had dances and they did not need police to manage them.

Weekly phone call with Grandma telling her what was happening

Working part time not because i had to but to have extra spending money

Cutting grass for others at age 11 

 

Yeah life was rough.

 

Only wish kids these days could actually live it even for a couple of days

 

 

[rocketdave]

I was born 1949, so I'm 70 now, but I had the sixties, seventies, more job offers than you could shake a stick at and then I came to Pattaya in its glory days.

Beats the hell out of playing on a mobile all day log!

[ianezy0]

Don’t forget that the youth of today will post the exact same question in 40 years.

Only the replies will be somewhat different.

I remember when we just had the internet and mobiles. I could never handle these hovercar thingies. Also, give me my electric toothbrush anyday, these self cleaning foods that maintain your youth and self clean your teeth taste really  bland. Bring back the 2020’s!!

[BritManToo]

7 minutes ago, ianezy0 said:

Don’t forget that the youth of today will post the exact same question in 40 years.

Climate change scientists predict the world will end in 10 years time.

There will be no people and no internet in 40 years.

(Unless 11,000 scientists are all wrong)

[Max69xl]

On 11/6/2019 at 9:26 AM, ivor bigun said:

I too was lucky to be born to parents who were not to badly off ,i was born after the war ,my father had come from Europe to fight the Germans ,married a local girl ,integrated and in fact became more British than the locals ,we had a good upbringing in a free society where you were able to enjoy life and say what you thought without the PC police or the permanantly offended having a go at you ,also you could give a wolf whistle to a girl without being branded a "sex pest" ,in fact most of the girls i grew up around were as "bad" as the boys .

So, people born in the 50's or 60's don't use computers in your world? Or maybe not even mobile phones? 

[mauGR1]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Climate change scientists predict the world will end in 10 years time.

There will be no people and no internet in 40 years.

(Unless 11,000 scientists are all wrong)

If you raise their paycheck, they'll predict that everything will be fine????

[malibukid]

3 hours ago, ivor bigun said:

You should have been in London in the late 60s early 70s ,wow,what times ,i mixed with people you only hear about today and the parties,wow ,life was a blast ,and spent time with a girlfriend and another couple,driving all over Europe , 

London in the late 60's, what a scene it was.  Hollywood the sunset strip was a trip as well.  remember seeing Donovan at a club called the "Trip"  on Sunset in 66.  i had to sneak in.  latter he would write a song about it.  first time he went electric. great show. Sunshine Superman.  next year ditched school and saw Hendrix at Monterey.  he blew everyones mind.  

Edited November 8, 2019 by malibukid

[allanos]

Nazi Germany had a Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, to influence the thoughts, actions and deeds of its citizens. "Benign" governments have been more subtle, but no less effective, in delivering their own "loaded" messages.

 

I was born in an age when radio was still flourishing, but which became largely usurped by television.  Of great benefit to governments broadcasting their own biases, both of these mediums also kept people off the streets, and made for a (largely) ordered society. 

 

In an attempt to divine the future, in 1949 George Orwell wrote "1984", which included his fanciful "Ministry of Truth". Yet not so fanciful, maybe! The "digital age" has ushered in the internet, cellphones, and "social" media, the content of which is replete with biased information, partisan disseminations, and fake news.  There is now a flourishing "fact-checking" industry, but who knows how accurate the so-called "facts" are?

 

Are today's new-borns brought into a better world than I was?  I dunno!  We are all brought into a world where the "thought police" run amok, and trust in governments has tanked.

[thaibeachlovers]

5 hours ago, HuskerDo said:

I've said often that I'm glad I was born when I was (50's) as I wouldn't want to be born into this ugly world. Previous generations created great things. Electricity, the locomotive, the auto industry, the telephone and now the cell/smart phone, NASA and trips to the moon, eradication of many diseases, the internet, the PC, the I-PAD, electric cars, etc.

 

What has the current generation (the millennials) created? Social media and Bitcoin. Social Media is ruining the world and Bitcoin will never amount to anything.  

WELL SAID!

 

IMO everything that made life better for most humans has been made already. The next generation will have their lives destroyed by AI/ robotics. If they are lucky enough to live in a country that gives them a "living wage" they might have some sort of life worth living. Most won't.

Seems to me that most people are either ignorant of what AI/ robotics will do, or don't want to think about it.

Why should anyone employ humans when a machine can do the job better, faster, and never get sick, take time off etc?

Factories that make specific items will disappear as 3D printing renders them irrelevant. In time, a 3D printer will be able to make anything at all. Humans won't even be employed to program the computers or repair the robots, as that will all be done by machines.

The only people having a great life will be the people that own the machines.

[thaibeachlovers]

16 minutes ago, allanos said:

Nazi Germany had a Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, to influence the thoughts, actions and deeds of its citizens. "Benign" governments have been more subtle, but no less effective, in delivering their own "loaded" messages.

 

I was born in an age when radio was still flourishing, but which became largely usurped by television.  Of great benefit to governments broadcasting their own biases, both of these mediums also kept people off the streets, and made for a (largely) ordered society. 

 

In an attempt to divine the future, in 1949 George Orwell wrote "1984", which included his fanciful "Ministry of Truth". Yet not so fanciful, maybe! The "digital age" has ushered in the internet, cellphones, and "social" media, the content of which is replete with biased information, partisan disseminations, and fake news.  There is now a flourishing "fact-checking" industry, but who knows how accurate the so-called "facts" are?

 

Are today's new-borns brought into a better world than I was?  I dunno!  We are all brought into a world where the "thought police" run amok, and trust in governments has tanked.

For a look ate the future today, look no further than China with it's social ranking system, made possible by computers.

We have created the worst possible thing that could happen to the human race, and it happened without any debate.

[baansgr]

4 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

The disastrous legacy of the labour years in the 70's of strikes, 4 day weeks, powers cuts, inflation and dead bodies left un burried did take a few years to sort out, but she did it bless her. Right to buy enriched millions of working class people who the socialists would prefer to have been kept poor- Baroness Thatcher the best post war prime minister, so far.

We all have our own opinions, I danced and got drunk when I heard the news the old beatch had died. 

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, malibukid said:

London in the late 60's, what a scene it was.  Hollywood the sunset strip was a trip as well.  remember seeing Donovan at a club called the "Trip"  on Sunset in 66.  i had to sneak in.  latter he would write a song about it.  first time he went electric. great show. Sunshine Superman.  next year ditched school and saw Hendrix at Monterey.  he blew everyones mind.  

I often wish I'd been born in time for me to be at uni in Liverpool in the 1960s so I could go see the Beatles and all those other great pop groups in their early days. 

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, baansgr said:

We all have our own opinions, I danced and got drunk when I heard the news the old beatch had died. 

The only reason she survived the election was because she took a chance and sent the forces to the Falklands against advice. She got lucky and the resulting patriotism gave her a win.

She won re election, IMO, on the lives of the troops lost in that far away land. 

[faraday]

5 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Thatchers recession? must have missed that, 15% interest rates came and went over night as did the poll tax. She enriched the poor more than any before her with the right to buy, biggest wealth distribution in British history.

And she also completly shafted the miners.

[mauGR1]

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I often wish I'd been born in time for me to be at uni in Liverpool in the 1960s so I could go see the Beatles and all those other great pop groups in their early days. 

I think most of the people would agree that the 60s were a great time to be, music of that era is unsurpassed imho, i am still listening to it !!

Yet, to put things in perspective, let's not forget that the economy in Europe was just recovering after 5/6 years of world war, and of course, like every time after a big tragedy is over, things were looking rosy.

[Krataiboy]

On 11/6/2019 at 9:14 AM, canuckamuck said:

I am happy to have been born in a time when classic values were still recognized as wisdom. But it is a double edged sword as we watch the dismantling of wisdom and the futile obsession with equity. Knowing why it is wrong, but powerless to change it.

We are shifting to world that does not reward the swift, the wise, the diligent, the truth teller, or the free thinker. But at the same time elevates the indolent, the dim, the faker, the liar, and the parrot.

The Judaeo Christian empire had a good run. Global socialism will quickly become neo-feudalism. And the new dark age will be born.

 

The West is clearly in a moral death spiral, caused by the abandonment of core values which created the world's most prosperous and egalitarian societies.

What we are now witnessing is the systematic takeover of our lives by a globalist technocracy, whose assessment of human worth is based on how much energy we produce and use. 

 

The threat of an imminent climate change apocalypse is being used to speed up the arrival of a Fourth Industrial Revolution in the planning stage for decades. 

 

https://jaysanalysis.com/2014/05/08/global-green-luciferian-government/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tn4P7IBqoQ

 

 

 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Krataiboy

[Lacessit]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Climate change scientists predict the world will end in 10 years time.

There will be no people and no internet in 40 years.

(Unless 11,000 scientists are all wrong)

They are predicting nothing of the sort. They are predicting most seaboard cities will have problems as sea levels rise. Jakarta and some Pacific islands are already there, watch out Bangkok.

The wealthiest people on the planet will survive very nicely. The hardest hit will be the poor. Not anything new there.

[BritManToo]

11 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

They are predicting nothing of the sort. They are predicting most seaboard cities will have problems as sea levels rise. Jakarta and some Pacific islands are already there, watch out Bangkok.

The wealthiest people on the planet will survive very nicely. The hardest hit will be the poor. Not anything new there.

Funny, because the wealthiest people are the ones buying up all the beach-side property.

As far as I know ZERO Pacific Islands have suffered any problems caused by sea level rises, mainly because there haven't been any sea level rises.

 

Could you link to a story about a Pacific Island that sank for me? 

The Carterets haven't sunk, and the population has doubled since 2007 when their sinking was widely predicted.

Height above sea level measured by Captain Morrell in 1830 1.5m, height now 1.6m. 

Edited November 8, 2019 by BritManToo

[ballpoint]

Definitely better to have been born then.  I daren't think about what my mother would have gone through had I just been born now.   A 50 year pregnancy would probably have killed us both.