Of all generational cohorts, older millennials are most likely to generate enough income to retire comfortably, according to the latest Vanguard Retirement Readiness report.
Specifically, millennials aged 37-41 have the greatest chance of landing a comfortable retirement.
Women’s rights have been walked back, causing child rape victims to struggle to find abortions, to say nothing of women being forced to carry fetuses who will die upon birth. Trans rights are being shit on, to the point that gender affirming care is being denied to people even where it’s legal. Taxes for the wealthy are too low. The middle class is rare to be in. Health insurance is insanely expensive and it’s difficult to see a doctor even when you have it- emergency rooms will leave you waiting for 6 hours or more. We simultaneously have too many people, and too few children with a looming crisis of too many elderly. We have microplastics in the air, oceans, food, fetuses, everywhere. Housing is largely unaffordable across the globe. Homelessness is out of control. Massive, destructive wildfires are the new norm. Heatwaves are killing people. Migrants are clamouring to find new countries to live in (which will get worse due to climate change) causing all kinds of social frictions. The youth are anxious, depressed, and suicidal.
But please, tell me how things are good for people over all?
If I were to go back in time the the 80s, 70, 60, etc. They would have a similar list of problems that seem insurmountable, but we keep going on and things have gotten better over time.
In 1990, 1.9 billion people lived in extreme poverty, representing 36% of the world’s population. By 2019, this number had fallen to 9.2% — about 703 million people.
https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/global-poverty-facts
Over the past generation, extreme poverty declined hugely, and there are more than a billion fewer people living below the International Poverty Line of $2.15 per day today than in 1990. On average, the number declined by 47 million every year, or 130,000 people each day.n
https://ourworldindata.org/poverty
Women’s access to education has improved significantly in many parts of the world. According to the National Intelligence Council’s Strategic Futures Group, there have been decades of improvements in women’s formal education
https://www.dni.gov/index.php/gt2040-home/gt2040-deeper-looks/future-of-womens-rights
Women’s financial liberation has improved in the United States. Women now have access to credit cards in their own name and can get bank loans without a male co-signer
https://wbl.worldbank.org/content/dam/sites/wbl/documents/2023/Chapter 1 The State of Women’s Legal Rights.pdf
The ACA has improved healthcare in various ways, including providing health insurance coverage to 20 million more Americans, protecting people with preexisting conditions from discrimination, and expanding Medicaid
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/10-ways-aca-improved-health-care-past-decade/
For every step back that we hyper focus on, there are two step forwards that we don’t even think about. All our problems have solutions, just don’t give into negative thoughts.
I’d love to hear how climate change ‘seems’ insurmountable. We aren’t even stopping ourselves making it worse, let alone actively looking to work towards fixing it.
Climate change will be tough. Even if we stop using fossil fuels, it will take decades for the environment to recover.
But wind, solar, and hydropower are all examples of renewable energy sources that are becoming viable these last few years.
Lots of countries are working to implement solutions, they still have their problems and no one is really doing enough, but these steps show us we are capable of implementing more drastic and effective changes when even conservatives can’t hide their head in the sand any longer:
China: China has implemented a number of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a carbon trading system, renewable energy targets, and energy efficiency standards[1].
European Union: The European Union has set ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The EU has also implemented a carbon trading system and invested heavily in renewable energy[2].
Denmark: Denmark has developed a “Global Action Climate Strategy: A Green and Sustainable World” to slash emissions and set a framework for limiting global warming below 1.5C as set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. The Danish government’s agreement outlines five goals, including increasing global climate ambition, strengthening focus on climate adaptation and sustainable development, and shifting financial flows and investments from black to green[3].
Brazil: Brazil has implemented policies to reduce deforestation, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Brazil has also invested in renewable energy and has set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions[6].
India: India has implemented policies to increase the use of renewable energy, including solar and wind power. India has also set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and has implemented energy efficiency standards[1].
Citations: [1] A review of successful climate change mitigation policies in major emitting economies and the potential of global replication - ScienceDirect https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032120308868 [2] What are the world’s countries doing about climate change? - Imperial College London https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/publications/climate-change-faqs/what-are-the-worlds-countries-doing-about-climate-change/ [3] 3 Leading Countries in Climate Policy | Earth.Org https://earth.org/countries-climate-policy/ [4] Global Climate Agreements: Successes and Failures - Council on Foreign Relations https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/paris-global-climate-change-agreements [5] A Framework for Comparing Climate Mitigation Policies Across Countries https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2022/12/16/A-Framework-for-Comparing-Climate-Mitigation-Policies-Across-Countries-527049 [6] Climate Change Mitigation in Developing Countries: Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey - C2ES https://www.c2es.org/document/climate-change-mitigation-in-developing-countries-brazil-china-india-mexico-south-africa-and-turkey/
Put down the hopium pipe dawg, you’re posting cringe.