The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

11 responses to “2013 is Going to be the Best Year in Human History”

1. 

   Damo

   January 1, 2013

   17 reasons to be cheerful
   1. We’re better off now
   2. Urban living is a good thing
   3. Poverty is nose-diving
   4. The important stuff costs less
   5. The environment is better than you think
   6. Shopping fuels innovation
   7. Global trade enriches our lives
   8. More farm production = more wilderness
   9. The good old days weren’t
   10. Population growth is not a threat
   11. Oil is not running out
   12. We are the luckiest generation
   13. Storms are not getting worse
   14. Great ideas keep coming
   15. We can solve all our problems
   16. This depression is not depressing
   17. Optimists are right
   For detailed explanation of each point click on the link.
   http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/reader's-digest.aspx

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2. 

   Sackerson

   January 2, 2013

   2003: the year of peak happiness? I hope not!

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3. 

   Cascadian

   January 3, 2013

   I tend to agree with most of the article, the world is becoming a much better place for large portions of it’s inhabitants. The irony is, that success is being achieved despite UN and EU intervention to redistribute earned capital from the western economies.
   Where I disagree, is the assumption that this will automatically be good for Europe and North America. China and India have seemingly discarded long experiments with communism and socialism and are benefitting as a result. Conversely, Europe and North America are becoming more socialist, believing that more government jobs or benefits can smooth over the negative consequences of massive government bubble economies that have burst. There will necessarily be pain, at present working-class pensioners that had the sense to save a nest-egg are being punished, there is an implicit government policy to rob these unfortunates. Worse yet, there is also policy to kill them if they are unlucky enough to end up in the hospital with a chronic disease costly to the government. Workers who have in good faith contributed to the government pension “scheme” will also find themselves sadly unable to fund a comfortable retirement. Nothing is being done to alleviate these problems so continual decline seems guaranteed.
   I remain optimistic about my own future because I do not reside in Europe or the USA, were I to live in those jurisdictions I would be much more pessimistic, the quality of their political leadership almost guarantees continual government intervention and disaster.
   Despite my gloomy opinions I hope Tom and the rest of you can steer a contrary economic path for yourselves in the coming year and enjoy much enjoyment with your families.

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4. 

   Moggsy

   January 4, 2013

   I guess if I had to pick between being Cleopatra VII Philopator, leaving aside that asp business, or me… then I would for sure pick being me at least 8 out of 10 times on a bad day.
   If I were born the same day as her the chances would be absolutely huge that I would be some peasant or slave or something who looked like a 90 year old at 35 with no teeth and not Cleo.

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5. 

   James Strong

   January 4, 2013

   I am not convinced about point 10, population growth.
   First of all it is still growing, only the rate of growth is slowing.
   Second: he says we will be able to feed everybody; is that enough of an ambition?
   Third: the Earh’s resources might be big, we might not be near the end of them, but they are not infinite. The more people who have to share resources, the less for each individual.
   Fourth:which populations are still growing? I think the major threat to freedom is the growth of Islam. Although I also view the EU as evil, yes evil, there is a chance of arguing against it. There is no chance of arguing against a backward culture that believes it has the word of Allah as its guide.

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6. 

   Tom

   January 5, 2013

   You wouldn’t like Cleo’s life anyway. Modern technology and medicine – and modern agriculture and transport – gives the poorest modern a life she would have killed for. Nice fantasy though.

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7. 

   Suboptimal Planet

   January 5, 2013

   “Modern technology and medicine – and modern agriculture and transport – gives the poorest modern a life she would have killed for.”
   I’ve heard seen various forms of this over the years, but I only half believe it.
   Modern medicine is the main reason I might chose Western ‘poverty’ over life as an ancient king, probably followed closely by access to information and international travel.
   But I expect they lived well in their short years. Good food, beautiful surroundings, fine fabrics, attentive servants. I don’t know how good the wine was back then, but I expect it was plentiful, and at least as good as the cheap plonk you’d be restricted to if living on handouts today.
   I doubt Cleo would choose a British council flat over her palace, even if you threw in internet, Sky, an NHS pass, and a Ford Fiesta 😉

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8. 

   Tom

   January 6, 2013

   Life in a council flat can be civilised; full of music, literature, social events with intelligent friends and all the other joys of life. That it often isn’t is nothing to do with the quality of the building. Cleo could be comfortable there if she chose NOT to adopt the sad niekulturny lifestyle of most of those around her. The NHS is rubbish by modern standards, but far better than anything available in her day. You may be romanticising a bit.
   I don’t know about Sky, but I am betting an intelligent ancient monarch would find the internet alone a clincher.

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9. 

   james higham

   January 6, 2013

   The power of self-delusion, triumph of hope over experience.

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10. 

    Moggsy

    January 7, 2013

    That’s what I just said. I was thinking modern dentistry when I said it, but I didn’t bother to mention it like preeclampsia and lots of other childbirth risks, diptheria, small pox, lock jaw, plague, leprosy, athlete’s foot….. No TV, radio, CDs, internet, electric toothrushes, Refrigeration, aircon, central heating, fast travel, telephones, good shampoo….

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11. 

    Tom

    January 7, 2013

    Actually, James, the human experience has been uniformly positive when averaged globally. No-one is predicting an immediate, wonderful future for the corrupt, debt-crazed social democracies of the West but while we wait for them to reset (one hopes in the least violent way possible) the rest of humanity is marching forward.
    Bad people (and their idiot followers) constantly try to hold progress back, the better to control the masses and rip them off. They want a small, simple, controllable economy (analogous, say, to a simple road network with traffic lights) not the glorious, wild, complexity of a free one. Better, for them, a corrupt Nigeria or Russia to rule than a vibrant, free and open society. The ability to boss people about and ensure they are doing the “right” thing (in the ruling clique’s view) at all times is more important to such purblind thinkers than the opportunities offered by freedom.
    If one could bring the first Earl of Chester (now Duke of Westminster) forward in time to meet his current successor he would be astounded that with just a few basis points of the economy in hand the Duke is wealthier by far than his forbear who owned all the local land and had most locals as his serfs. Totalitarian leaders are equally blind to the opportunity cost of their absolutism. It takes a sophisticated, as well as an unselfish, mind to grasp that a little of a lot can be better than a lot of a little. It’s ironic that those of us who advocate the former are decried as “greedy” by these monsters and their fools.
    But if the monstrous regime of the USSR could not survive, with all the horrifying violence at its rulers’ behest, there is hope for all.

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