@Cornelius @SK1ZM If you pick and choose certain metrics, yes, things are easier today. You can hop on Amazon, order a Wonder Widget, and get it delivered in a couple of days. That's easier than before, where you had to clip out something, write in your name, mail a check, and in a week or two your Wonder Widget arrives in the mail.

Food is another one, for sure. We have a surplus of calories available, no doubt. $10 will buy you a days worth of calories from Chick-fil-A.

But once you take all the factors into account, including such things as health care, quality of life, future prospect, etc. (some of which is difficult to measure, for sure, but it doesn't mean they don't exist), it's not great.

The surest sign of decline is if you ask the young people today, "would you like to go back to 1955 and live then?" They might miss having the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe available in their pockets whenever they want (they probably won't), but they'd trade that for a fridge that doesn't shit the bed after 2 years because it got a fucking virus, a wife that isn't fat and crazy from excess calories and overwhelming ennui, and a car that doesn't look like Megatron took a shit on some wheels.

(Oh, and they don't have to spend every day dodging violent negroes, because they're all together on the other side of the tracks.)