> By almost any metric, life in western society is better than ever, you cannot say now times are not good.
Is there a metric for community-oriented participation? It touches exactly on your point, people aren't doing communal things because screens and the internet exist, wouldn't that impact a metric of "good life"?
I feel there are a lot of focus on economy metrics: consumption (prices, assortment of products, etc.), wages, employment but social metrics are lacking. How can we quantify other aspects of life that aren't immediately (or by proxy) measured on economics ones?
By almost any metric, life in western society is better than ever, you cannot say now times are not good.
From my perspective one of the main reason is the modern internet: people are glued to screens instead of participation in local community.
Why bother to go somewhere if you have everything in your pocket and also on the enormously big tv screen in your room?