I really never have believed times improved, and i am almost positive things will only get worse.
30 years ago we had a future to look to, the unshittified internet, great music, affordable land/housing, affordable durable cars, people actually interacted in real life, no social media trash. Now, we have billionaires and LLMs. I don’t see how anyone can possibly think times are better or going to improve.
Yes, everyone will say “civil rights improved” and yes thats maybe the only thing that has changed, however it’s getting taken away every day again so I don’t think you can even use that point anymore.
Medical technology has greatly improved. More people survive cancer, aids, surgery is far less invasive, and better medications.
Technology in general is getting better.
We have a faster internet. I love having access to so much information. Sure, there are far more gullible fools who believe in all manner of silly stuff but I feel the internet has done more good than bad.
Life expectancy has gone up about 2 years since 1995 (from 76 to 78). Not a massive difference TBH.
Look at that dip right before 2020! Wonder why America dipped so much lower. Surely, face-masks as a way to prevent the spread of infectious disease wasn’t suddenly a controversial issue!
What about people’s overall health? Two years isn’t much but if a person’s last ten years is lived with less pain and more mobility that is something.
Wow, that really puts the impact of covid in perspective.
The one grape I have with the medical technology thing is the fact that if I used any of it I would be in debt for the rest of my life which would be longer because of the technology
Do you have any other fruits with medical tech?
I’ve goyes. A pineapple t a pineapple with an
Half the technology only prevents death, but doesn’t necessarily give you quality of life, so they can keep it. It’s the pharmaceutical advancements that have had the biggest QoL impact on me, and thankfully generics have been reasonably affordable.
Maybe you’ll get lucky and get a recall or a class action lawsuit
That is only an America problem though
True
Medical technology has greatly improved.
If you can afford it. Health insurance in the US was certainly better 30 years ago.
The internet allowed to stupid to find each other far too easily and spread far too much bullshit.
People believed in all manner of things without supporting evidence long before the internet arrived.
But now they have the means to organize
Yeah but it was harder for so many stupid people to link up and feed off of each other.
Violent crime is down. Smoking is down. Teenage pregnancy is down.
That’s about all I’ve got.
Slavery across the world ia actually at its highest point.
Perhaps in absolute terms.
Violent crime about to explode as abortion now illegal in many places–the knock-on effects of it pretty well isolated as the only reasonable explanation to the sudden drop in violent crime in the mid 90s that has continued through today and was a central thesis in Freakonomics.
With abortion now illegal, hushed up, or hidden in many states, the crime and its vicious cycle will return. Bet your money, when those who would have otherwise been aborted come of crime age in ~15 years, full Judge Dredd world will be on in the US. Teen pregnancy, from the 2nd generation of otherwise aborted kids, will of course explode to the delight of evangelicals everywhere.
Absolutely agree that abortion was a significant reason for falling crime. Should be interesting to see what happens. I personally think crime will never quite get back to where it was because we condition kids to spend more time indoors these days.
You might be right; they’ll be hooked up to the Matrix, eyes glowing
I think there won’t be nearly as much unwanted pregnancy still. Kids these days - first of all - just aren’t fucking as much. But also they are better informed about the risks of pregnancy and how to prevent it. And abortions are quite destigmatize now, and people are motivated to get them. If necessary, they can buy an abortion pill on the internet or drive across state lines.
I agree with your assessment of current state; add in a few cohorts of 10 commandments in classrooms, reduced access to birth control because they’re taken out of schools, reduced education because the DOE has been rebranded and now education takes place through public school Grok portals or God knows what, sexual content is heavily censored and restricted which doesn’t do good things for teen pregnancy rates.
Lol drive across state lines? In the palantir big brother world of 5 years from now? Read up on the data gathering and now nearly realtime tracking of movement that can and is being done by “law enforcement” and red state government agencies in the name of stopping abortion. Just like how facial recognition of protestors will be weaponized, the new fascists will take anything they get their mits on and warp it to their ends.
Medicine has improved by leaps and bounds. We have greater life expectancy and mostly a better quality of health along the way. Child mortality is down globally.
https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality?time=1996..latest
Improvements in our understanding of neurodivergent students has resulted in better educational and quality of life outcomes for millions who in past decades would have fallen through the cracks.
The proliferation of environmental lead from paint and gasoline are WAY down, and the hole in the Ozone was just about peak in 1995.
Open source, public domain, and freely available knowledge have democratized education, technology, research, and product development in ways that would have almost been inconcievable in 1995.
We are able to communicate more globally, even with total strangers, often across language barriers, and for free.
Video games, films, and television are able to create visions that would have been technically impossible 30 years ago. And technology has reduced the barriers for people to gain entry into those industries.
I carry around a tiny super computer with instant access to all the world’s knowledge. That would have been a dream in 1995.
There are of course many things that are worse. It’s a harder time to be starting out in life. “Luxuries” are dirt cheap and necesities are unaffordable. We’ve traded our sense of community for a paranioa of “others” even as the world has gotten safer. Globally the world has been swinging toward extremism and it constantly feels like capitalism may collapse and we don’t know what comes next if that happens. But failure to see how much is better and for how many seems like too much doom scrolling and too narrow and outlook.
Yes, the ozone hole is healing, we have less lead in the environment coming from leaded fuel, cars in general have become more fuel efficient, there are plenty of things that are way better now, than 30 years ago.
There is great music being made here in 2025, though the general music taste has stagnated for a long time.
Medical procedures have absolutely got better, as has tech in general, in 1995 we used CRT monitors with our computers, we used ball mice that constantly needed to be cleaned.
This is just some of the things that have improved.
Thank you. It’s hard to see what’s better sometimes but I have definitely benefited from a surgery that was “dark ages” 30 years ago.
Yeah, currently there is so much negativity on the news that it is easy to forget the good stuff that does happen.
we used ball mice that constantly needed to be cleaned.
I still use one. Though, it is the Logitech Trackball, but it still needs to be cleaned, like the old school mice.
Trump wants to allow the production of CFCs again.
This is interesting, CFCs have as far as I can tell been banned since the 70s/80s, so reintroducing it would mean that a lot of industrial production lines would need to be rebuilt, costing vast amounts of money.
I don’t think any established producer would want to pay a lot of money to restore an old process to end up with a product that can’t really be sold outside the US…
Implying that the CRT has yet to be improved upon in any material sense. (Okay, maybe in terms of weight.)
Tap for spoiler
I am (mostly) joking by the way
But you could throw the mouse ball at someone across the classroom. Throwing an optical sensor doesn’t have the same impact.
The teachers at my school had a very smart idea of using super-glue to seal to ball cover to prevent students stealing and/or throwing the balls.
After about a week the every computer mouse was basically useless as it was impossible to clean the gunk off the rollers
Now we have PFAS and microplastics in the water.
I bet we had microplastics in the water, then. We have only now been able to detect them.
Before it was lead, chromium and Christ knows what since there was little visibility and less oversight.
Now we have inexpensive, easy to install reverse osmosis that is within reach of nearly any person who isn’t destitute. During the lead days, it was out of reach for nearly everyone due to size, relative complexity, cost and general availability.
Today we have test kits for many type of pollutants and the water authorities have mandated reporting for water quality.
When I was a kid 30 years ago, we lived in the country and drank shit water from a well out in the country. Tasted and smelled like sulfur. We also had a neighbor who owned property with nothing on it but what looked like a cistern cap (underground water tank). Every so often a tanker truck would show up and leave shortly thereafter. We never knew what the hell that tanker was putting into the cistern or if there was even one down there. It could have very well just been a cap that led right into the damn dirt. Every person in my immediate family has endocrine/thyroid problems, none of the extended family does. Was it the mystery truck that was dumping fucky chemicals right into the ground? I will never know, but if we had reverse osmosis back then, none of us would be at the fucking doctor as much as we are. Hormone replacement as a 35 year old man is some shit. Hashimodos is a pain in the dick.
My kids grew up drinking nothing but purified water. If the local water authority was lying and producing shit, at least I’ve been able to add a layer of protection all for about $250 and an hour of my time to set it up.’
I’m voting for better now, shittier then.
Damn that’s tough to hear. I’m sorry you and your family are experiencing long term medical issues. Water pollution by industry is a real evil and I’m glad there’s more awareness and better technology to deal with it today.
I’m interested in reverse osmosis systems, but the most inexpensive ones I’ve seen that could be installed in a rental home are still around $100-200.
We had that back then too. We just didn’t know about it.
Look up medical advancements over that time.
True, but the population in industrialized societies have become less and less healthy at the same time. We have Ozempic, but we also have 30% of Americans with prediabetes.
When was the last time you saw someone with Polio? Or someone die of sepsis?
Update: My point about sepsis isn’t that it is gone, But that we’ve gone from hearing about it still being a thing from knowing someone who it was a thing for. As far as polio is concerned I’m 39 years old currently. While polio wasn’t around while I was a child my aunt’s uncle’s parents knew someone who had polio while they were growing up. Friends of the family who were adults knew someone who had polio while they were growing up. That’s mostly what I mean, We went from knowing someone first or second hand who suffered from all kinds of ailments to only hearing about it because there’s a small amount of it.
Polio wasn’t around in the 90s I was there. Sepsis is still a thing. MRSA wasn’t really as common as it is now.
Not trying to lessen your point, but people do be dying from sepsis all of the time still. Granted, we do have way better treatment and protocols, but it’s a fast killer if not caught in time and a lot of different things can cause sepsis
But polio, for sure way better. Never seen anyone with polio before irl
Also stroke treatment. Wayyyy better now than before. We didn’t really have anything except aspirin until the 90’s, and now we’re straight up removing the clots from the brain (when we can). It’s kind of wild how much stroke treatment has improved in 30 years
Never seen anyone with polio before irl
Give it time. I’ve got ‘Tesla branded iron lungs’ on my US 2026 bingo card.
Never seen anyone with polio before irl
Give it time. I’ve got ‘Tesla branded iron lungs’ on my US 2026 bingo card.
While polio wasn’t around while I was a child my aunt’s uncle’s parents knew someone who had polio while they were growing up.
Well yeah, if you go back to your grandparents’ generation you’re gonna see polio because you’re taking 30s and 40s. My grandfather talked about it too, but my parents’ generation didn’t.
HA no. I was there, it was… Well differently bad, maybe less in aggregate. Cultural attitudes really took a HARD turn when 9/11 happened, and the government abused it just about as hard as they could think of. President Obama did try to bring back some of that 90s optimism, but then along came Trump and ground it into dust.
A few technological aspects of life are incredibly easier and more accessible. We have instant access to any form of information, from porn to encyclopedia articles. Comparing prices and ordering things - commonly called “mail order” 30 years ago - took weeks compared to a couple days now. Communication is far easier and cheaper - talking between San Francisco and Stockholm or Singapore would have cost several dollars per minute 30 years ago, and now it’s a built-in feature of network access. Most of us have in our pockets a telephone, photo/video camera, advanced computer, entertainment and game console. There have also been some notable medical advances - my friend died from leukemia in the 90s, and it’s very treatable now, along with various kinds of tumors.
Yes, 30 years ago the AIDS crisis was still going strong and, in the US at least, same-gender relationships were illegal and the LGBT community didn’t have a right to work, and on top of that same-sex marriage was illegal. A lot of rights are rolled into marriage, including the ability to remain at the bedside of your loved-one when they are at the hospital or on their deathbed, arranging and/or attending your partner’s funeral, and being allowed to remain in your house after your spouse dies. Through the 80s and 90s, gay men were losing partners left and right and some were kicked out of their partners’ funerals and then kicked out of the house they had lived in for decades because the title was in their partner’s name since they couldn’t sign together.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was also started in 1994.
Same sex relationships weren’t made legal until June 26, 2003 (Lawrence v TX) Same Sex Marriage on June 26, 2015 (Hodges v Obergefell) Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace was barred in the US June 15, 2020 (Bostock v Clayton)
Even with all the holes Republicans drilled into it, the Affordable Care Act helps many people get health insurance. We also have medication that prevents the transmission of HIV and that prevents the onset of AIDS, saving many lives.
In 1995, the internet was in its infancy, at least compared to today and was largely text-based. If a website had a bunch of pictures, it took take 5-15 minutes to load depending on your location, provided nobody killed the connection with an incoming call.
Sure the mindset nowadays is much more pessimistic, even thought the ruling class from the 90s is aging out of power. We just need people ready to push us forward as more of the silent generation and baby boomer politicians leave office.
You’re right that a lot has changed for the better, especially when it comes to legal rights for LGBTQ+ people. The AIDS crisis was devastating and compounded by the cruelty of being denied the most basic recognitions like visiting your partner in the hospital or even being allowed to stay in your home after they passed. Legal victories like Lawrence v. Texas, Obergefell, and Bostock were historic, and they represent real, hard-won progress.
But I think it’s also important to recognize that legal inclusion doesn’t always mean liberation. A lot of those rights are still tied to institutions like marriage, which leave out anyone who doesn’t fit that mold. Marriage shouldn’t be the gateway to healthcare or housing security. That just reinforces the idea that some relationships or lives are more worthy of protection than others.
Same goes for healthcare. The Affordable Care Act helped, but it still left healthcare tied to jobs and profit. Life-saving medications exist, but they’re still out of reach for many because of how expensive and inaccessible our system is. PrEP, for example, is amazing in what it can do, but the fact that it’s rationed through patents and insurance barriers says a lot about who this system really serves.
And while the internet has opened up huge spaces for connection and organizing, it also turned our identities into data and our attention into profit. Social media connects, but it also surveils and exploits. So even in our victories, the system keeps finding ways to profit off our survival.
I think the pessimism today is more than just a vibe shift. People feel it because they know deep down that we’re still not free. That our progress is fragile, often built on the same systems that oppress others. The question isn’t just whether things are better. It’s whether we’re building something that won’t keep leaving people behind.
What are you talking about with PrEP? It’s not tied to having insurance, there are LGBT sexual health clinics where you can get free PrEP even if you don’t have insurance. If you go the traditional route for medication and get a prescription through your PCP it’ll depend on your insurance, but that’s also not always the safest route. Granted if you live away from the city, you will have to go the traditional route, because there aren’t likely to be any LGBT clinics nearby unless you decide to drive into the city for your quarterly appts.
In the 90s, health insurance was almosy exclusively tied to your job. There were a couple policies that you could get if your job didn’t offer insurance, but they were expensive. Today, if your job doesn’t offer insurance or if youre out of a job, you can not only get insurance on the marketplace, but you can even get financial assistance. That financial assistance didn’t exist in the US 30 years ago outside of Medicaid. It’s not universal Healthcare, as seen in other countries, but the ACA is overall an improvement on the system.
I agree that there are still rights to be won and attitudes to be changed so that people can live their lives openly without threat of violence, just noting that the overall situation is better now than it was 30 years ago. For example, I saw a story about a trans teen in North TX (a small town north of the DFW metroplex) in the last couple years. If that story was from the 90s, it would’ve been about the death of the teen and that’s what I was expecting. Instead, the article was about the teen being kicked out of a school play because they were trans. It was a relief that the teen was still alive, which shows some positive growth, however there’s still work to be done.
The younger generations are better at inclusion and I’m hoping that trend will continue. As the Silent Generation and Baby Boomer politicians (who have been ruling for the better part of 60 years) leave office, I’m hoping they are replaced by younger, more open-minded politicians. I’ve seen articles mention how in some elections that’s happening, it just hasn’t reached the leadership of the various branches yet. Hopefully, when it does, we can reshape the system to help everyone and build better defenses against those who would abuse their power for the rich. My concern is that if the conservatives are rallying behind a goal, while progressives grow increasingly pessimistic, that we may not see shift that we really need to make progress.
It’s kind of mind blowing how dismissive of the ACA people are, even those who were aware before it went into effect. It wasn’t by any means what it should have been, but medical access unequivocally improved vastly as a result of it.
The fact that it was Mitt Romney’s idea should speak volumes about the propaganda from the Democrats. It has its pros, but like everything else the Democrats support, it must first and foremost benefit corporations.
but medical access unequivocally improved vastly as a result of it.
Yes, and I still have access to my same doctor! But I don’t even go to the doctor when I need to anymore because my family insurance went from a $500 deductable to a $10,000 deductable. I have insurance, but I legitimately lost access to healthcaret, I can’t afford it. I went to the hospital two years in a row and had to pay it off in installments for the next two years.
My mom’s medicare got amazing, and I couldn’t complain about that. But holy shit my medical expenses went up. And I’m pretty well off, I just can’t afford a $18,400 pay cut and save any money in this economy.
Yeah it’s better than in 1995.
- Vehicles have gotten much more efficient, quieter, and safer (for the occupants)
- Electric-assist bicycles
- Smartphones and fiber internet
- Making orders, reservations, and appointments online rather than with agents or phone calls
- Less crime
- More organic food choices
- Better coffee roasters
- More artisan bread bakers
- More locally made fine beer, wine, and cheese
- Less air pollution (including cigarette smoke)
- Better television and movies at home
- Affordable solar energy, batteries and off-grid living
I’m sure there more I’m not thinking of. I’d have a hard time going back to 1995.
I miss the wild west internet of the late 90s, early 2000s but it wasn’t better. Dial-up sucked.
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I like having a high quality camera, mp3 player, and gps in my pocket.
Without elaboration all you’re saying is smart phones are poopy.
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Apart from cigarette smoking inside again I wouldn’t really miss those that much
I was around for that time, and yes in many ways the world is better now, it’s a mixed bag but:
My kids were not beat up in school for being queer.
The bay is much cleaner (though that is going in the wrong direction)
Solar power has come down in cost so much that there is hope for the clean energy transition to accelerate.
I was literally paid less than the men doing the same job I was doing, openly, in the early 1990s. And there was smoking in offices.
Violent crime is much less prevalent than it was back then. My kids don’t have to be as careful or afraid as I was.
Overall - I don’t think it is useful to be nostalgic, there are enough changes in a positive direction, sure we had more hope for the future in the 1990s but the reason we needed it was because things were kinda shitty.
Yup, 100%. Gotta acknowledge the mixed bag.
It’s almost certainly better today for anyone who is gay or trans than 30 years ago. We have a long way to go, and there may have been some backsliding in the last 5 years, but things are undeniably better today than in the 90’s.
Certain aspects of race are better today. As recently as 1993, a majority of Americans still believed that interracial marriage should be illegal.
Food is way better. Back in the 90’s, there wasn’t a ton of variety in restaurants available in all except the biggest cities, and a lot of food trends were still boring with flavor (plus we were still in the low fat craze that made things taste worse). Even groceries were pathetic in comparison: fresh produce didn’t have nearly as many choices, and was expensive, so most people were eating canned and frozen produce by default. Little things like being able to choose apples that weren’t red delicious, or potatoes that weren’t russets, tend to be taken for granted today.
Health and safety are better in most ways, but worse in some others. Obviously obesity and related diseases are worse today. So are some conditions like allergies, certain autoimmune disorders, certain cancers. But most cancers are less deadly today than 30 years ago. Traumatic injuries from workplaces and car accidents are down, and are better treated. And the huge diversity in the population for health means that a lot of people are living healthier than ever, even while a lot of people are less healthy than before. Life expectancy keeps creeping up in the cities, health expectancy seems to be up, too.
Air quality seems way better, with smog and acid rain pushed down with successful regulations. And people don’t smoke as much anymore, especially indoors.
We can pursue our diverse interests from anywhere. If you drill down on pretty much any hobby, people who are really into that hobby have way more opportunities to share in that interest with people worldwide.
There’s a bunch of bad stuff, too. But we should also appreciate the good things that have improved in recent times.
30 years ago? So 1995. As one who was there: fuck no. The 90s where cool, everything seemed fixed, osties travelling through Europe in their Trabant 2 stroke miniature cars. (That was fun on the Autobahn) Only Saddam was jerking around and that was far away, internet was brand new, everything seemed possible. No terrorist threat of the RAF, IRA or the bask separation front. There was even hope for peace in Israel.
But if you would say 40 or 50 years ago? I would say fuck yes. It’s much better nowadays.The cold war was wild. The recession of the 80s was bleak af, Thatcher, Reagan. PLO, RAF, IRA, Basks. No man, there was a reason behind films like aliens, Terminator and punk music. Why they resonated with society at that time. Contrary to current popular belief the 80s was not a decade long neon party. Many people lost their jobs. Youth unemployment was at it’s highest ever. No jobs, no houses available. It was dark. Darkest time of my life. Everyone thought nuclear war was inevitable. We would all die of radiation or in the cold harsh nuclear winter. Yup. That was the Outlook at that time.
70s was the all time high of the cold war, oil crisis, something else i’m forgetting. But I was a small child back then so everything about that era is hearsay.
But for me? The 90s where good. 80s sucked hard. (End) 70s also had a lot of downs.
I agree. When people criticize the 90s, it often sounds like they’re thinking of the 80s.
Depends who you ask. Things are better for the LGBTQ+ community. Still not as they should be, but I see a generation of kids now who are accepting, whereas 30 years ago, it was the worst thing anyone could accuse you of.
You say that civil rights may go away, but we do have them right now, and as our kids get older, they might not be so willing to take them away.
Yeah, that’s a big one in the US. Being a queer person in the 90s was almost exile from my social circle. There were some gay guys and lesbians were accepted on the perifery, but homophobia reigned.
The sheer amount of street level crimes, bar fights, car break-ins that existed in those days would blow your mind. Things have changed so much and yet everyone seems to have forgotten. I can’t speek for the ‘worst’ neighbourhoods in the US nowadays but back in the 70s - 80s whole sections of US cities were shitholes. Media make’s everything look way worse than reality.
I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you this but 30 years ago was the mid 90s, not the 70s-80s
I know, the trend continued. And the 90s were half as bad. Sorry you can’t extrapolate.
Oh God…
Unpossible!
Yes and no. Some things got better and easier than 30 years ago. Some things entshittified beyond reasonable expectations.
We got phones which act as a device to connect the world with endless amount if information, entertainment and is a great tool for personal comfort yet the same things are twisted to a degree where we cant live without a phone anymore. Can’t not to have a social media account, we got fully compliant to the surveillance that is happening to us not even that we are tracked not only for the governments of our countries but mainly by advertisers in order to manipulate us into buying crap we don’t need.
Feels like a double edged sword to me personally.
Yes, everyone will say “civil rights improved”
Gay marriage was only legalized due to a Supreme Court decision that declared same sex marriage bans to be unconstitutional.
Since then, Republicans have appointed replacement justices, and it was they who overturned Roe v Wade and upheld a lot of Trump’s recent antics.
