DC Econ: The thief of joy

The main idea of the video is that markets have made life exponentially higher quality and safer than ever before, and the gap between incomes is shrinking in terms of quality of life. As the lady said, the man who lives in fear and expects the worst is usually the one who survives and thrives, which to me means that the constant fear mongering of life seen in the world isn't necessarily unconstituted. When we compare the past ways of life and living, and say "so we shouldn't be complaining", what isn't mentioned is that the baseline expectations of each generation are increasingly higher, therefore, the newer generations will notice when something is different than what they expect. That is how progress happens. Sure we can compare 1920's working conditions to the working conditions now, but if I never lived in those times I cannot put myself in their shoes. Think of it as fine tuning, the more bigger problems we solve, the more smaller ones we can put effort into, which still is progress and still increases the quality of life. Comparison is the thief of joy, and the more we dwell on the past, the more divided we will continue to get as a society.