to think modern life is rubbish

[maryjolisalondon]

Working full time, paying huge amounts of rent / mortgage just to have two days off a week. Only getting a few weeks holiday a year. Traffic and getting to work and school then making food often only leaves an hour or two a day free. Then if you get sick more and more companies only pay SSP. For people under 40 its also looking like retiring even in your 70s won't be possible for the average Joe.

Personal

That graph means nothing on its own.

ragwort, am intrigued, what do you and your dh do now?

maryjolisa, there is always the Ting Tings to cheer you up, and sing along to

ssd - rather not say as I don't want to be outed but my job is nothing particularly original or exotic although I have lots of autonomy and it is interesting but barely pays more than NMW. DH bought a franchise plus does two other jobs part time - it seems to be all about diversifying these days, certainly no one has a 'job for life' anymore.

very true!

Yawn there are some tedious little Pollyannas on here.

Yanbu. Modern life should be a darn sight better than it is, is the way it feels to me. We can put a man on the moon and we have smart-bloody-everything from phones and glasses to belts, but we get busier, unhealthier and more miserable. And destroy the planet in the process.

The fact that some things are better than x point in the past kind of misses the point.

tedious little pollyanna or whiny-ass little poor me baby? I know which I'll pick, thanks.

Omg you sound depressed go get some lustral/sertraline from the gp

YANBU. maryjolisa

There always room for improvement, otherwise how would have got to where we are?

Saying modern life is fantastic compared to what went before is a meaningless comparison.

The sooner all politicians stop believing people exist to serve the economy, and they realise that the economy exists to serve the people, the better.

We are lucky to be alive in the time and place we are. Doesn't mean a few small tweaks can't make it better.

I think it's a big generalisation. Maybe you feel your current life is rubbish. Not everyone does live as you describe. There is no obligation to live as you do. You could resign from your job, downsize your lifestyle, volunteer abroad, become a crofter, write the great British novel about the rat race or Utopian future...

OP, you're getting a real hard time here! People keep pointing out the large scale of centuries or half of one, when you're really talking the last 10-30 years.

I know I've reports about how young people today are finding it much harder to get jobs. I happen to know in my field that it is way more competitive than when I got my position 10 years ago, and that was already a noticeable downshift from 10 years before that. Technology and other things have improved in those years I'm very grateful for some increases in healthcare but I'm not sure we're still getting 'better' as a whole. And I worry that the impetus to shut down any sort of conversation with the comparison to how much better it is now to a different time in history is going to lead us to being complacent in the face of growing problems in our current society.

And to the person who asked the OP would you really want to be back in the 1950s, this isn't always the best question. For me, personally, I probably would like it. I actually like domestic stuff like cooking, taking care of kids, and housework. We have a cleaner, so I haven't used cleaning products in ages, and I recently had to bleach something and it made me feel so happy to be smelling it and nostaligic for the times I used to clean. But unfortunately I don't have time for that anymore as I have to be at work full time (sole income earner). I squeese in serious cooking on weekends as I don't have time in the week. I often feel like I was born in the wrong generation. But I wouldn't want all of society to go back to then. It would be a big step backwards and it would surely make far more people unhappy than the few weirdos like me who wouldn't mind.

I'd no doubt be dead without modern living. Burst appendix, Scarlett fever, measles as a young child - take your pick. Or, I'd be down the mines or in the mills instead of having a ridiculously privileged life compared to the good old days or even women today in poorer countries.

I love my modern life, can't wish for any more. But then I am a glass half full type of person!!

And me and my oldest son would be dead if we were around 100 years before (dreadful birth) I am so grateful to modern life for that

some of modern life sucks, but there are many more advantages. modern medicine for one.

I used to feel a bit like that. Then I left my husband, got a new job, met new people, got new interests. I love my life. Maybe you should make some changes to yours if it makes you miserable.

But murmuration there's nothing stopping you from living as if you were in the 1950s -plenty of one parent households the, all those war widows. Just ditch the car, ditch the TV/microwave/dishwasher/tumble drier, rarely eat meat or anything foreign or exotic, ask to be paid less than a man doing the same job and don't vaccinate your kids. Oh, and no central heating in the bedrooms. Simple!

YANBU. Modern life has lots going for it (reliable contraception, flush toilets and the Internet to name but a few) but where's the benefit of any of that if you feel like a rat stuck on a treadmill. One of the happiest, most stress-free times of my life was teaching English in a small Indian village far from most of the benefits of technology, without hot water or a reliable electricity supply, surviving on mostly vegetables and rice. Okay, how happy I would have been if I'd had to stay there permanently is debatable but the thing that really struck me coming back to the UK was how harried and angry everyone was.
I think it's a bit sad that so many people on here are giving you a hard time, however I would say that one good thing about modern life is that most people generally do have some degree of control over how they live their lives. Maybe your life sucks right now but could you change it so that it doesn't?

"years ago no pregnant woman worked after 6 months."

Really? What 'years' are that, specifically?

Even if that ill-defined, historically inaccurate "fact" was correct, not working, but instead being a full time housewife, without modern appliances, and with usually far more children in a much smaller and less effective home, was vastly more exhausting and harder work than your standard 9-5 office job.

Op, there is a cracking thread about ways to wedge a bit of enjoyment into your daily life to beat the daily grind blues maybe some smarty pants could link it? I'm not saying ignore the serious issues but as pp have pointed out modern life in the uk isn't half as bad as others have it. You sound in need of a break.

I've bumped the thread, its in chat.

awaits zombie persecution

we have come a long way and invented lots of super things which could potentially make life much more pleasant for everyone.
The problem is that we still have corruption, greed, bigotry, misogyny...

Maybe in the future the effects of the various human frailties will be mitigated but for now the benefits of modern life are unevenly and unfairly distributed.

The rising tide does not float all ships

the rising tide does not float all ships

Love that. Very true.

Actually modern life is rubbish. 2015 and where is my flying car?