Sorry, but I came late to the 'UK is broke' thread and saw the discussion about whether it is better to live now or during some bygone 'Golden Age' - and couldn't resist putting in my 'two penn'orth'.

Older folk like me tend to believe that since we lived both in the past and the present we are in a good position to make the comparison. The flaw in that thinking is that we have lived as youngsters in the past and crumblies today.

We got the 'good stuff' back then - the exciting developments in popular music and huge economic progress (we were the first generation to be able to afford private cars - and there was still room to drive them). Personal satisfaction is probably more linked to the rate of improvement of your situation than its absolute level - at least for youngsters. Most of my contemporaries would say we had a great time, even without the Internet, i-pods etc.

But what about the old folk? We perform tens of thousands of joint replacements per year these days. This is a huge relief of human suffering. I know many 55 plus-ers who play tennis or squash, ski and otherwise maintain active lives despite having more metal in them than a Terminator. In my young days a gammy knee or hip meant permanent pain and restricted activity. No matter how rich you were it made no difference because artificial joints didn't exist in any meaningful way.

Cancer, coronary disease and many other illnesses were simply death sentences. There wasn't much dementia because folk didn't live long enough for it to develop. Life expectancy has risen so quickly in recent years that pension schemes are failing. Is that a problem or a victory? Pensioners should welcome the financial problems resulting from not being dead.

There's no doubt that for all my life the best time to live as an older person has been 'now' - a continuous improvement in which western society and capitalism should take pride.

For youngsters (IMO) it makes less difference due to the sheer energy they possess. But even for them there is more money and more things to spend it on. Fewer of them face the drudgery of a coal mine or a production line. Take the simple example of a farm tractor driver. Forty years ago he sat freezing on a cab-less tractor with the gear-box (literally) screaming him to deafness, grit from the tyres blasted into his eyes, trying to keep his thumbs on the outside of the steering wheel in case the front wheel hit a lump and dislocated his thumbs. No suspension, no heater, no radio, no safety cab. On a bad day it was awful. Nowadays a tractor is probably more comfortable than and almost as quiet as a car. Whatever the weather.

I suspect a similar case can be made for most people's working conditions.

Whether we can continue to improve the lot of people in this country is debatable.

But so far so good IMO.

Regards

Skegbyhouse