Think you have it rough? No, you don't. I am not a huge fan of Brad Delong's, but he nails it here.
The current recession may turn into a small depression, and may push global living standards down by five percent for one or two or (we hope not) five years, but that does not erase the gulf between those of us in the globe's middle and upper classes and all human existence prior to the Industrial Revolution. We have reached the frontier of mass material comfort—where we have enough food that we are not painfully hungry, enough clothing that we are not shiveringly cold, enough shelter that we are not distressingly wet, even enough entertainment that we are not bored.
There is no real reason to believe that the human condition will not continue to improve, if in fits and starts, as the centuries pass.
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