Past Utopia

It does seem common to look to the past and see a better world that we have abandoned. Whether it is the disillusioned Tea Party member with a shaky grasp of the constitution and the US of the 19th century or some group trying to help isolated/tribal peoples.

It's almost like a weird variety of backwards optimism: look back to times that were in fact much worse, but see the good things only. I suspect it is because things don't seem to be going well in many ways right now. Really, though, as bad as things seem right now, an unemployed American today is much better off than a industrial laborer 100+ years ago. It is certainly true that the poor in many places are still very badly off by America 100+ years ago standards, but even in those cases most people are better off today than they would be in the same place a century ago (not all, most).

100 years from now, this will most likely hold true again. US debt/deficits, the growth of China's economy, the European monetary union becoming the world standard currency (or it's becoming completely undone by present backwards thinking), oil itself going the way of the dinosaurs, none of that will lead to a worse world a century down the line.

That said, there is one present problem that does have the possibility to turn things around dramatically and that is climate change. It could be that we end up better off despite global warming or, indeed, even because of it, but it could also be that shifting climate causes too much damage for us to recover from in time and that we face a serious contraction in global wealth, with the resulting starvation/war/displacement that will come with it.

Since I live in the US, there is a better chance that things will improve for me even if they are worse for the world at large, and even if they don't improve I'll still be better off than most of the world (well my descendants as I'm all but certain to be dead 100 yrs from now).