100 Years
Lets take the clocks back 100 years.
It is 1909. Things are different.
Times are hard.
Racism is a huge problem and not even considered a problem by most people.
We have changed a lot.
If you had to start your life over again would you rather be born in today's world or in the year 1909?
Better Now
Side Score: 26
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Better Then
Side Score: 16
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I would say I would rather live now. The world is more fun and more connected. You can make money easier and meet more people to make more friends. In 1909, we still haven't passed the two world wars. Even if I show up saying that "I'm from the future! Don't get involved in the war in Europe!" They'll just lock me up in one of their terrible early 1900's mental institutions. We don't know what's going to happen in the future of 2009, so we can't really say what would be better just yet. But we do know that the time around 1909 and after was pretty bloody and tough. Side: Better Now
Wow you pretty much wrapped the debate up before it got started. I liked what you said about the terrible early 1900's mental institutions. I would hate to experience what that is like. I agree that it is better now. When I thought of this debate in my head it didn't seem so obvious. But then when I created it I started thinking about racism and peoples rights and war etc. I don't think the other side will be too crowded. Side: Better Now
The early 20th century was a much simpler time, but I really like the perks of the 21st century. We have fast and efficient cars and can travel on planes to make transportation an ease. We have cell phones, computers, and the internet to stay in touch with others at the push of a button. We have great ways to have fun too, like TV, the web, and a multitude of video game systems. And in the 21st century, we have much better health care, etc., leading to longer and healthier lives. Of course there are drawbacks, like different types of security that we must be aware with, like the threat of identity theft from the internet and viruses that corrupt PCs. But as a whole, this century is better than the last century. I can't say the next century will improve, since the world will be a scarier place maybe. Side: Better Now
I also believe that the world is better now. We almost have every technology to use to make even productive, we have advancements in medicine and can even cure most viral infection and diseases that could take away life of million others during that time. Already now, we can also make money online at the comport of our own home. Mostly, and this could only happen right this time; we have Paris Hilton as a sensation. Now, beat that? Side: Better Now
It is better now because then the US was not as important or as powerful as it is now. Now is better because of the advances in medicine and tecnology. We even have an African American president. Even though he is going to ruin the country we still have come a long way. Side: Better Now
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OK...Now hear me out! I also agree that the world is better now for many reasons, but let me tell you where I think we've gone astray. Perhaps some of you are used to this by now but I've seen so many changes in our lives I feel absolutely generationally (sp?) challenged! Years ago families were closer together. They had no reason to move across the country for a job or anything else. Years ago mom's were home with their children so we had virtually no latch-key kids. Our neighbors were known to us and watched out for us as kids. Families had dinner together every night without fail and sometime over each week-end you got to know your cousins, aunts and uncles a lot better. Even if one were poor, all things were shared in families. There was no peer pressure, no designer clothes for kids, no computers, no cell phones and no cars at 16!!! Your dad took you to where you needed to go and picked you up again when you wished to come home. This would be the only area in which I believe we might have done better, otherwise the progress of 100 years has served us fairly well. Change is inevitable and I've seen much in my years. Change is something you can always depend on as years go by and change is the thing that challenges us and makes us strive for more. Side: Better in only some ways
I very much agree with what you said. That was the response I was hoping for when I made this debate and I did not expect to get it. Especially about the families. Family used to be very important to people. And family is important. These days when people have problems they give up and separate instead of working them out. Side: Better in only some ways
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Um... OK, but that's a very narrow minded way to look at the past. Sure, you would get to spend more time with your family, but they would be dead at like 45, so it'd even out. You didn't have designer clothes or a car because you would most likely be dirt poor and work 12 hours a day to make enough money to survive. And we wouldn't bathe all that often. That would be a depressing, stinky world. Then there is also the fact that the world is going to go to war in a few years and after the millions of people have been killed in the war, millions and millions more are going to die of the flu. Yay! But wait; if you didn't die in the war or from the flu, you get to go through a depression and then yet another world war. And this one takes forever to finish. Very bloody, too. And computers and cell phones aren't that bad, come on. You're even using a computer right now, and cell phones can be annoying but they do help our lives when used as they were intended. Side: Better Now
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The question, whether we are better off today than our forefathers of one-hundred years ago is what I care to address. How many among us pump our own water, grow our own food, raise our own meat, build our own houses, or even own land for all of the above!? Not many. So, how can we say we are better off than they who grew their own food etc. etc.? We definitely bare many more burdens in life than they of one-hundred years ago. And they who live happy lives with few burdens are better off than they who must bare many burdens for the same happiness. Can any person alive today claim that he/she has a greater degree of happiness than someone living in 1909? I have noticed the debate overlooks the fact that happiness today is a consequence of past and present events and not future events; those men and women living in 1909 also enjoyed the same happiness as a consequence of past and present events as we do today. Both we of 2009 and they of 1909 are/were ignorant of the future sorrows. And for that reason we cannot with a straight face claim we are better off than they of 1909 if we compare their unforeseen future with our known past while simultaneously assuming there are no horrors in our unforeseeable future. Both global and local thermo-nuclear war are possible realities of 2009 that they of 1909 were never troubled by; we on the other hand will wish we would have died in our mother’s wombs if we live to experience that horror; a horror that will exceed by several magnitudes any horror that any man has ever experienced. And consequently, when such an event occurs, everything mentioned in this debate concerning our nifty little toys that supposedly make us better off or more happy are reduced to their intrinsic value, kindling. For, in the event of thermo-nuclear war the electrical grid will be destroyed, and everything that we love to claim that makes us better off than they of 1909 that is electron dependent will have zero value and thereby zero happiness. (During the 50’s, the discovery of the E.M.P., created by nuclear testing, led to a study that concluded one nuclear weapon detonated 180 miles above the geographical center of the U.S. would destroy the nations power grid and almost all electrical devices operating during the detonation.)Let’s not forget that we, unlike our forefathers of 1909, are the most dependent people known to have lived on the land we call the U.S.A. We have become enslaved to our creations and those creations are useful because of other creations. Sometime in 1859, a confirmed solar storm hit the Earth which had enough energy to destroy the entire electrical grid of the world today. Let’s assume that such will occur again in our future. Now let’s debate which generation is better off. The lives of almost all Americans in the 21st century rely upon an extremely fragile infrastructure to provide the necessities of life. And any event that nullifies that same infrastructure will destroy the current American way of life, along with the lives of tens of millions of people who relied upon their inventions that led to their dependencies, that led to their fragility, that led to their deaths. Side: Better Then
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