Another rant from the harbinger of doom. I believe his followers gain succour from his dystopian views because it gives them an excuse for the shortcomings in their own lives. OK, that's a bit strong, but the fact is, no matter what figures you want to analyze, never in history have humans been so fortunate both in health and general well being. Generally, each generation lives longer, is better cared for and enjoys a better quality of life than the last. Is it perfect? No. Will it ever be? Probably not. Do we care enough about our third world cousins? Again, probably not.
I never quite "get" what Chomsky's real problem is. Is it Multinationals? Media? Government? Corporations? It seems to be all of these, and a whole lot more. North Korea would be a good place for him to rail against evidential control, injustice and a true dystopian existence. Here we are allowed to take advantage of education, free thought and certain rights. In short, to make the best of things. I suggest he, and his followers, do the same. Moaning on, and on, and on about this awful, oppressive existence we suffer in the west, really gains no sympathy from people who live in places where they would love the chances Chomsky seems to take for granted.

Completely irrelevant to the topic, but I had to laugh when I heard "if I didn't have to be in prison tonight, I'd be arrested".

On topic... unchecked capitalism is a terrible system, so is unchecked socialism.

There's nothing wrong with private enterprise and innovation, but they should be used for what they're good at, i.e. anything where the primary motivator is profit.

Capitalism by definition is terrible at anything where the primary motive is something other than profit (or at the very least, where profit shouldn't be the primary motivator) such as healthcare, prisons, etc.

Ultimately the question is what do we want out of life as a society? I'd argue that's quality of life. We should the levers of capitialism and socialism to achieve that. Right now, we're way too capitalist.

I lived in many places in SF from 2001-2011, TL, SOMA, Bernal Heights, Lower-Haight and for a longer while in the Mission.

Never paid more than $550.

Been living in Oakland the last year - have a house 2 small blocks from BART, 1 stop to SF (although there is no need) 7 bedrooms, 2 roommates, 3 bathrooms, 2 living rooms, large backyard (with many fantastic substances growing), laundry room... and still do not pay over $550 and Oakland is where all the cool people are anyway these days + Quality of life in my opinion is much better especially because the cost of living is a lot lower since I'm not being nickel & dimed (One Dollared) everywhere I go. I can walk to work without any fucking stupid fucks saying a fucking word to me, I could take the bus and not sit in fucking piss & blood and it isn't crowded usually 1 or 2 people on the bus.

Been in SF a few times over the year to see Acid Mother's Temple, Meshuggah and also Panda Bear live...but Oakland even has better Mexican food so it's increasingly off my radar.

It's not that easy, @chingalera. I am one of those progressive liberals who are supposed to be twee about every life.

And I share your horror at medical costs that are poured into the days of our eldest citizens.

It is different when it is your loved one. My dad almost died seven years ago, was in ICU for a week, rehab hospital for a month, then to a nursing home. He would have died, too, if he had had a DNR. But how could I sign a DNR for someone who was going into the hospital for a simple gall bladder operation?

He has one now, but he didn't at the time. He survived and went from being miserable living with his second wife to having seven years of great quality of life. Seeing five great grandchildren born, two of whom were named for him. Winning just about every fishing tournament they had -- most fish, biggest fish, smallest fish -- one prize, if not all three of them. Finding his way into being a more loving person with his family than he ever allowed himself to be before.

And he "should have" died, by every practical financial measure.

These seven years have been the greatest blessing our family could have received.

Is that gross negligence and fraud, for the hospital to have saved his life at an enormous cost? Because in many ways, we got a father we never knew before.

And he has a DNR now. If it repeats, he is a goner. And we are all fine with that. But damn if I am not thrilled that I failed to get it before.

The thing I don't get is why free market supporters hold it up as an end unto itself.

I don't care about free markets, and I don't care about regulated markets, I care about the outcome. As a society/species our goals should be about things like justice, freedom and quality of life. If a free market leads to that, then great... bring on the free market. But a free market is not the end, merely the means.

The thing to realise as well, is that no matter how wealthy you are, it's not all down to you.

I earn a decent wage, roughly double the average household income. I'm not ashamed of that; I worked hard to get here, and I continue to work hard.

But neither am I so arrogant as to think that I got here on my own. I'm lucky. I was born into a first world country with parents who supported my education. I've always been fascinated by technology, and I find logical problem solving comes easy to me. It turns out that right now those are valuable skills. 50 years in either direction, maybe not so much. So once again, I'm lucky.

Anyone who is extremely wealthy and thinks they are anything other exceptionally fortunate is deluding themselves.

In other words, show a little humility. You might deserve to be rich through hard work and innovation, but no one person should be worth more than 41 million people. If you genuinely believe that, you're delusional.

American women from the last two generations have turned into assholes trying to act like the vapid bitches on television is what the shit looks like to me...That and the overall decline in quality-of-life in-general in the U.S.

I blame to a large extent the popularity of craptacularly untalented gangster rappers and the ghettofication of culture by marketing assholes. The same assholes who want us to pay for their (entertainment) shit rather than use it and throw it the fuck away like it's quality deserves. You stole our souls, now I steal your media content.

The same assholes who have glorified names like Fendi, Prada, etc. and made that bullshit household names. I blame television mainly, it's fucking poison for the mind and soul.

It's homogenization of a culture through marketing as a means of slavery and control, it's insidious, pervasive, and terminal.

Ok, this is totally bad-ass....

Aaaaaand if I wanna play with it I need about $749 USD....

Uhhh, when are these DARPA toys gonna be as cheap as the quality of life in the United States?!

*quality My life does suck and i am super poor

Me, too. Always been in the same camp with regard to my own immediate concerns. Quality of life in the now, work out the details when chaos comes knocking-Timing being 90% of success in matters, by the time serious health issues associated with immediate emergency needs or exacerbated by the same come-a-knocking I am confident that the concerns of the adult diabetic and heart cases will outweigh those of the few fit poor, and there'll be no room at the inn for broken-down gypsies.

@Buck said: "We should close factory farms and teach people how to hunt again."

Hunting can't scale to support a larger population than a hunter-gatherer tribe. So the cost of meat would skyrocket because demand stays high, and supply can't increase.

Meat costing $75 per pound instead of $5 per pound would be a huge reduction in quality of life for everybody.

That's why humans left hunter-gatherer lifestyles in the first place.


The answer will probably end up being the vat-grown meat Silicon Valley is working on now. It will be the health equivalent of organic and free range meat, since it's not fed pesticide food, antibiotics, etc.

Oh, I don't know. Almost all drugs are a trade off between side effects and therapeutic effects. You gotta look at the statistics and play the odds. If bad psoriasis is really reducing someone's quality of life, it might be worth the risk.

The shady thing would be if there were some older, off-patent treatment that works just or nearly as well (maybe even better) but doesn't have the same side effects, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if that were the case.

My personal 5-yr-plan for expatriation began yesterday. If I have to live in any country, I have 3 criteria:

Must be an active volcano within 20 miles and surrounded by ocean
Must be able to dive for shellfish and angle for salt-water fishes from the shore
Tourism economy with the only Americans there visitors or fellow expatriates with the bulk of tourists coming from Europe and other.

I'm shooting for the south-eastern Windward isles, where I can with an EU passport, travel freely to Cuba. Not to mention Jamaica and South America.

It's not so much the fucked government, they're fucked everywhere. It's all about quality of life-Good, fresh, UNTAINTED food, great music, and NO FUCKING AMERICANS!

I used to love my country before the machine started breeding idiots, now all that's left here are ineffectual robots who talk a lot, saying nothing and doing less. As far as I'm concerned, y'all can have this motherfucker....Oh, and I'm gonna join the Freemasons when I get there as well, 'cause Freemasonry KICKS ASS!

I just don't get the complaint that automation has put people out of jobs.

You've taken shitty, menial, repetitive jobs and made them automated... like they should be.

In an ideal world, the people who used to do shitty jobs like that should be better educated and skilled and be able to do more fulfilling jobs.

Sure it doesn't always happen like that, but decrying the lack of mind numbing jobs that are better handled by automated procedures is really setting a fucking low bar on what you think quality of life should be.

Complain about the lack of education that leaves droves of people with no skills to be able to do meaningful work.

Humans with arthritis swim for exercise too, because it's low impact, and it should improve the cat's quality of life. Swimming is also used to rehabilitate injured horses.

*length=34

agreed, I committed myself to dying young the day I was told that a raw food vegan diet would be the only way to have the actual recommended cholesterol levels. If I can't eat bacon and at least drink diet coke I don't really want to live.

At some point we have to balance quality of life with our actual healthy choices.