> Some people think that the pre-industrial world was somehow nicer and more leisurely. The simple fact is that life in almost every age of the world before this one was brutal and short. Disease was rampant, work was physically back-breaking, and the average life expectancy was half or less what it is today.

There was yet another excellent article in World Magazine's millennium edition in which the author compared life in developed countries now to previous periods. It boils down to the interesting fact that most Americans below the poverty line live better than royalty of just a few centuries ago. Food quality and price, sewage, medical technology, literacy and education, and many other things have skyrocketed, as we all know without me saying so.

>You have to go back to the Garden of Eden (if you believe in such things) to find a time when life was "better" in any qualitative way than it is today.

Tangent time. While the Garden of Eden was perfect, does that necessarily mean life was easy? That is, is perfection effortless? That would seem to make effort imperfect. Nah, I think I'm wrong here. "Not easy" isn't the same as "difficult."

gab"I can just argue with myself, because this discussion is currently on the 134th page."by