What’s better now than it used to be?

[DataPestle]

So many things feel like they’re getting worse - wars, the environment, the internet, treatment of women - can we think of things, big and small, that are actually getting better?

I’ll start:

Children are listened to now, whether it’s about abuse claims or their general emotions

Things like Duolingo make languages feel more accessible, so more people
go even a bit towards learning a new language

There are lots more restaurants/cafes serving food from around the world, whereas when I was young I was lucky to have a Chinese takeaway in our town

Performances for cinemas and theatres have accessible options for disabilities/ND audiences

Any more?

I had bad experiences with dentists as a child too, I had a phobia for years into adulthood but I now have the loveliest dentist who is so kind and patient and explains everything to me.

Diabetes treatment. Insulin pumps and blood glucose sensors (plus years of research data) have made it all better so much easier.

Doughnuts. Used to just be red jam ones, or ring ones.

Driving and Navigating an unknown area is so much easier.

Seatbelts

Showers

Much reduced infant mortality rates

Women have their own legal identity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverture

Compared with the previous two, the Prime Minister. Shows how low the bar is now though.

Medicine generally - more screening for things, better treatments - both heart disease and cancer aren't hopeless in the way they used to be, and it's getting better year on year.

Of course, going back to my parent's childhood, the game changer is antibiotics - both my grandmothers lost children to diseases that would be curable now.

I remember the gas mask at the dentist when I was a kid put me off for years. Definitely something that belongs in the past.

Far more choices of food for vegetarians and vegans. I'm not actually either,but I'm not much of a meat lover and often prefer vegetarian options. Up until about 10 years ago,if I went out for a meal, I'd often be struggling to find something I liked,and invariably ended up with fish and chips. Nowadays I'm spoilt for choice.

Viagra lol.
Central Heating as Standard.
Advances in healthcare

Ooh good one. I too remember these hell rooms 😱

I'm a genealogist like another PP and I agree, it's a job that makes you realise how fortunate we are today. It's not that long since a woman was a man's possession....she couldn't leave a will (even if she's the one who brought the money into the marriage) because she wasn't allowed to have any possessions to leave.

Death certificates reveal multiple children died from diseases that today we get free vaccinations for. As a genealogist, you know that if a person has died in their 30s before 1900, the chances are that it was from tuberculosis, and these deaths were commonplace.

Children are on the census records working full time from the age of 14 within the memory of a generation still alive today, and before that from 12 and even 10 years old. Down the mines, out in the fields, and able to be married off at 14 and 12 years old. Many working class rural families had to marry on xmas day as it was the only day off everyone got all year.

Deaths from accidents such as carting accidents, clothes catching fire on candlesticks, etc all commonplace. People were lucky to live past 60. No social mobility....sons simply followed their fathers into the wool mills or down the mines.

Women dying in childbirth or shortly afterwards. Ditto the babies...born at home but only lived a few hours. People could not afford doctors and there was no NHS.

I love my job, especially finding out about people's ancestors within the last 150 years, but it really demonstrates how fortunate we all really are today.

This is not good:
Worse quality materials
Labour practices aren't improving as they should
Same for environment
High street is stone dead

All we have are more and more of these brands
People are more complacent than ever about all of the above

(Sorry, positive thread- ok, we have electric toothbrushes now)

I thought I would placemark for a positive read later.

Almost everything is better than it used to be, surely. Modern medicine, women's rights, the treatment of minorities, the way we parent... I think the internet is a boon, actually.

I think probably pet welfare has improved somewhat. I think a goldfish in a bowl, a rabbit alone in a tiny hutch at the end of the garden, or a dog chained to a kennel would be frowned upon by most in the UK now.

Automatic washing machines!

Educational and welfare provision for ND children

We all had outside loos until the late 70s, early 80s. It was worse because most people round our way had dogs that would bark the whole time you were in there.

I was born in 69 and we weren't particularly well off and always had an indoor loo! As did any friends/relatives we visited. My gran did have an outdoor one but also had an indoor one upstairs.

It probably depends hugely where you lived and your actual household income. “Not particularly well off” is relative, a lot of people would have been much much poorer. According to census data and the General Household Survey, as late as 1971, 15% of people overall in England and Wales still had an outdoor toilet, rising in the poorest areas to 38%. In some of the poorest parts of Scotland, a quarter of people still shared a toilet with at least one other household. Plus home ownership until the mid-1970s was still relatively low - only 40% of people owned their home in 1970 - and there were no legal housing standards for tenants. Quite a lot of people at the lower end of the private rented market would likely not have had indoor toilets or bathrooms as their landlord wouldn’t have bothered installing them.