Also, please do not condescend to me by saying stuff like "so-called third world countries". I live in a third world country and I will call third world countries what they are.

People suffer here under corrupt kleptocrats every day, and I will not have people try to deny that suffering by saying stuff like "so called third world countries", implying that the "third world" is actually doing great or something.

No idea I was pushing your buttons. Sorry.

Actually I don't see where you did use that term?

I didn't. Guess I assumed I had used it based on your response.

Sorry for overreacting.

And that's exactly my point. We are making actual progress, we are changing people's lives for the better, but if you live in the first world, you won't feel that, as most of the Big Issues of human life have already been solved. The first world is currently struggling with Big Issues that are a level above that, such as global warming, which the average person doesn't feel impact their life so directly.

That is why technological progress and economic growth matter.

I would argue that the struggles you mention, i.e. starvation and disease, are more prevalent as a result of industrial development. Large scale starvation is a result of centralized farming and disease stem for population density. Small scale tribes don't face these issues chronically, they either overcome them or they don't.

I would also argue that specifically global warming is a direct consequence of technological progress and the industrialization of society. Human pollution would not be a problem is it weren't for materialism.

Technology provides comfort, as some expense. Either reliance on a central supply for food, water, electricity. Or in the form of pollution and exploitation of other humans.

In your opinion what is the ultimate value of colonizing mars for example?

edit: I am also from a "developing" country where the struggle is clearly visible.