Would you rather live lavishly 200 years ago or live poorly in the present?

Say you still get to live in a developed country, here are some reasons that make the present so much more worthwhile.

1. Health

You can’t enjoy life’s pleasures if you’re dead.

Disease has historically killed more than any form of human-on-human violence ever did. Consider that roughly 1 out of every 2 children historically never made it to adulthood or that the bubonic plague once wiped out 25-50 million people in Europe.

Wars tend to stop after a while whereas disease is ever-present.

2. Social Mobility

To live poorly in today’s society can sometimes come down to choice.

In the past, who you were born to, your race, and your gender played a far greater role in defining where you will end up in the social hierarchy.

Those barriers are virtually eliminated today.

If you have an industrious nature, you will far more likely achieve your desired lifestyle than you would in the past.

3. Technology

Arthur C. Clarke once wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

We are indeed living in a world of fairy tales.

Imagine explaining concepts such as an airplane, a telephone, or a computer to someone from that time period. Anyone with a smartphone today has access to the largest and greatest library known to man called the Internet.

The best part?

The free market has driven down the cost of technology such that everyone can enjoy them. Even the poor.

It might be trivial to consider such a question. One might say, "Of course living today, in general, is better than living in the past.". But sometimes we have a romantic view of the way we once lived. We cherry-pick the things that are pleasing and ignore the ones that aren't.

In any case, I hope we continue to advance as a society for many, many more centuries to come.