https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: it looks from your recent history like you've primarily been using HN for ideological battle. That destroys what this site is supposed to be for, so we ban accounts that do it. Please don't do it. That is also in the site guidelines.

The crux of the article was that people, the media, etc always focus on things getting worse while the data shows they’re getting better. I agree with that. In the future, I will be more careful in expressing myself so as not to arouse resentment. I’ll also stop posting about BTC.

This may be true in material terms but it assumes that material wellbeing is all that counts.

The reason this comment triggered such a strong reaction is that it dismisses the emotional distress that goes along with being at the bottom of the socioeconomic pile.

Factors like student debt, medical costs and the general costs of living in many places put many people into profound distress, that can turn into unbearable chronic misery, for which air conditioning seems like small consolation.

I agree with your overall point, and I am one of those that is able to take an optimistic view of the future and trust that problems that seem like existential threats now can be resolved in time.

But I'd urge you to be sensitive enough to anticipate the kinds of reactions you'll trigger when you make a claim like this, even if it's true by the narrow definition you've chosen.

That comparison to Rockafeller is nonsense. Go ask someone working at McDonald’s if they’d trade places with one of the richest men ever.

You take these things for granted because you live in a rich enough society that enables you to do so.

You're convinced that anyone who has a problem with their standard of living in America has no perspective, when really you're the one who can't see the perspective of the lower class of someone living in one of the richest countries in the world. Seriously, you're making these arguments on the internet, on a forum where everyone is presumed to be working in technology and therefore not starving, how about you go volunteer at a shelter in your city like I do and tell those people "cheer up! I bet you wouldn't want to switch places with John Rockefeller!"

I know you won't though.

When you make absurd conclusions, you should examine your premises.

Rockefeller could literally pay an army of people to fan him with palm leaves, make sorbet from the ol' ice house and make him fresh iced tea as he walked around town if he wanted.

What the fuck does Rockefeller care if the carrying capacity of agricultural land increases due to the Haber process if his personal consumption would remain the five-star best-in-class ingredients for every meal he ever has if he so chooses. He doesn't care about the mean's position. He is the tail.

The existence of air conditioning and the Haber process doesn't make the life of the working poor better than his.

Sorry, for that, but is throwing insults really how discussion is supposed to be done?