I thought it was me getting old (in my 40s now, with little kids, life feels like shit). My thoughts:
1) Globalization caused massive changes to this world that have not been properly acknowledged. Sort of like none of the politicians cared about redistribution. In aggregate, the average person is better off, but there are significant structural impacts. A lot of people in the west, got hit badly (e.g. manufacturing). Conversely, a lot of people in Asia (specifically, China and India) have had spectacular improvements in standard of living.
2) Mobile & Internet: info travels at the speed of light. Along with general computing advances, this makes everyone more efficient, but simultaneously more starved for human contact and with little to no downtime.
3) We are still paying the price for the 2008 fiasco. Interest rates were down too long and inflation measures not accurate. House prices (and other asset prices) went up dramatically. This simultaneously increased wealth inequality (those with assets gained, those without got left behind), and made the so-called American dream harder to attain.
I was very romantic about democracy growing up in countries without it. Now that I am older, I can see how messed up the system is (even in the West). I remain optimistic that the Internet and computing will somehow improve things, though I don't exactly see how.
1) Globalization caused massive changes to this world that have not been properly acknowledged. Sort of like none of the politicians cared about redistribution. In aggregate, the average person is better off, but there are significant structural impacts. A lot of people in the west, got hit badly (e.g. manufacturing). Conversely, a lot of people in Asia (specifically, China and India) have had spectacular improvements in standard of living.
2) Mobile & Internet: info travels at the speed of light. Along with general computing advances, this makes everyone more efficient, but simultaneously more starved for human contact and with little to no downtime.
3) We are still paying the price for the 2008 fiasco. Interest rates were down too long and inflation measures not accurate. House prices (and other asset prices) went up dramatically. This simultaneously increased wealth inequality (those with assets gained, those without got left behind), and made the so-called American dream harder to attain.
I was very romantic about democracy growing up in countries without it. Now that I am older, I can see how messed up the system is (even in the West). I remain optimistic that the Internet and computing will somehow improve things, though I don't exactly see how.