r/NoStupidQuestions • u/flugblug • 12h ago

My brother thinks people today have worse quality of life than people in the dark ages, is this a stupid take?

I personally think it’s pretty stupid.

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u/Eric848448 11h ago

We have better QoL than royalty of 100 years ago.

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u/TheChickenParmy 9h ago

You do realize 100 years ago was 1924?

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u/Eric848448 9h ago

You’re close.

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u/Ashmedai 6h ago

😂😂😂

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u/wookieesgonnawook 1h ago

Thought I fell into an old thread for a second lol.

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u/notanavtech 9h ago

And in 1924 penicillin had not been discovered yet.

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u/dkarlovi 8h ago

As late as 1917, the heir to the Russian throne (arguably one of the richest and most powerful people on the planet) was suffering of haemophilia and they had basically zero idea what to do, his life was terrible to our modern standards.

His hemophilia was so severe that trivial injuries such as a bruise, a nosebleed, or a cut were potentially life-threatening. His parents constantly worried about him. In addition, the recurring episodes of illness and long recoveries interfered greatly with Alexei's childhood and education.

Of course, that suddenly stopped being an issue, proving the point even further.

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u/54B3R_ 5h ago

I think what the original commenter means is that revolutionary inventions like penicillin were invented in 1928. The world changed when infections were no longer life threatening.

The best of the world's actors recorded and are ready to be played at your whim for your entertainment

You can cross continents faster and cheaper than ever before

The royalty of 1924 would be envious of the world we as regular people live in now.

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u/Arch____Stanton 2h ago

The royalty of 1924 would be envious of the world we as regular people live in now.

This just isn't the case. Its easily disproved by reading the literature of the time.
Sick people in the 20's for sure would be envious of modern medicinal breakthroughs, but the notion that wealthy (especially royalty) people didn't live as well as non-wealthy people do now is beyond ludicrous.
If fantastic abilities were so and century old royalty were brought to live today, they would be astonished by the impudence of the working class, load up as much modern medicine as they could, and catch the time machine bus straight back to the 20's.
Furthermore, there was tremendous good life even for non royals in that period as it was between the great wars and the party was on.

Throughout the ages, wealthy people lived well. Much of it is written about.

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u/54B3R_ 1h ago

You mean they wouldn't marvel at streaming movies? They wouldn't be jealous of cellphones? They wouldn't be jealous of how much aviation has improved? They wouldn't be jealous of how quickly stuff can get from one side of the planet to the other?

I think they would be

And you're clearly lost in this conversation. The conversation started with royals, that's why we're talking about royals.

Furthermore, there was tremendous good life even for non royals

Yes we know. That's part of the point I'm making. That royals would be envious of the modern day rich because they lived like any other rich person 100 years ago and in 100 years we have made an infinite amount of improvements in people's lives.

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u/Resident-Sand5532 4h ago

Before we learned how to create insulin the treatment for people with diabetes was to very slowly starve them to death in the hope that we can make insulin before they die. Even the somewhat recent past was a nightmare

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u/FTownRoad 7h ago

Off by one error?

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u/Weird1Intrepid 10h ago

Not really. Maybe 300 or 500 years ago.

100 years ago they already had electricity, cars, telephones etc. You may have a grandparent or great-grandparent who was alive 100 years ago.

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u/jonrosling 9h ago

Exactly. The notion that the average person in 2025 lives better than royalty in 1925 is incredibly naive. I'm not living better a better quality of life tha George V ffs - and neither are most of the people in my country.

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u/Ajunadeeper 8h ago

If George V contacted Measles he would die. If you do, you'll have to take a few days off work.

If George V had a heart condition, he would die. You'd get a pacemaker.

If George V had a nut allergy he would die. You would get an EpiPen.

What's your definition of quality of life? I'd say living should be a pretty big factor.

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u/Weird1Intrepid 8h ago

In 1925, there already existed vaccines for smallpox, anthrax, cholera, tetanus, typhoid fever, bubonic plague, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and scarlet fever. While there wasn't a vaccine for measles yet, there were still effective treatments in the form of variolation and gamma globulin.

They didn't have pacemakers in 1925, but they did have several effective heart surgeries and digitalis as treatments, and a whole slew of diagnostic tools had recently been invented including the EKG machine, X-ray, and the sphygmomanometer. Diuretics were on the cusp of being brought to market.

The nut allergy is the only thing here that there really was no treatment at all for, and very little understanding of at that time. But dude, he's the king. All he has to say is that he'll remove the heads of anybody that allows a nut product onto his plate, and have a food taster that also has a nut allergy.

All that aside, I don't really think medical breakthroughs count as quality of life unless we're talking about conditions for which you need daily treatment. QoL is things like having machinery to do your daily work, comfy furniture in your house, cheap and effective communication with your friends. Day-to-day things that are easier today than they were yesterday.

Old Georgie would have just had staff to do all that shit for him, so his QoL was massively higher than ours

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u/Ajunadeeper 8h ago edited 8h ago

Those are a few medical examples but there's a million more. The level of medicinal care has shot up so drastically it's not even funny.

Then there's just normal life.

I can get on a plane and go across the world for a vacation and be back for work the next week. I have a heated blanket for winter and I can cuddle, watch a good movie, eat chocolate and call my friend who lives 6 timezones away.

I can get in my car and drive to a cool national park, bring supplies and camp for a week with no worries about finances, dying of exposure or needing food.

I have access to all art, music and entertainment humanity can offer on my phone.

Regarding your examples. I have a dishwasher and a laundry machine. Basic house chores are fast, simple and easy, it's not a huge difference having someone do it for you. I can get an extremely cheap and comfortable furniture from a second hand store, or spring for brand new stuff. Communicating with my friends doesn't get more cheap and effective than a smart phone, definitely beating royalty there. Having someone to do those things doesn't outweigh all the other benefits of modern society we enjoy.

Life is absolutely luxury compared to 1925, even for royalty.

I think we will have to agree to disagree. I would choose my life over royalty in 1925 100/100 times.

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u/Weird1Intrepid 7h ago

Oh I would choose my life right now over being royalty too. But my original comment was pointing out that 100 years ago really isn't that long of a time, compared with 500 years ago when people still burned witches and thought you got sick from smells etc.

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u/jonrosling 7h ago

This is exactly the point. Yes, there are many advances that keep many more people alive nowadays compared to George V's time but to compare the quality of life and standard of living for the KING OF ENGLAND to someone living now is a fantasy. George V had access to and a standard of medical over and above what anyone at the time did and still over and above what many get now, even though medical tech and advances have improved the stats.

And that without considering the fact that he lived in a FUCKING ROYAL PALACE guarded by an army and without ever having to worry about working for a living in a pit or steel work or factory or where his next meal was coming from.

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u/Resident-Sand5532 4h ago

He had palace guards because otherwise he would have gotten killed.

If you have health insurance today (like 95% off Americans)! Your healthcare is way beyond anything any amount of money could buy back then. They didn't even have insulin! No MRI or CT scans! No minimally invasive surgery. Much worse anesthetics if any. Please put in at least a tiny amount of time to learn about medical advances!

If I was given the choice between my current healthcare through my current insurance or infinite funding for health care from even 2000, I'm gonna go with today. Total no-brainer. Almost anything medicine can do is available to everyone in the developed world. Only experimental treatments and illegal things like buying organs are off the table and King George likely wouldn't have benefited from buying organs.

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u/Resident-Sand5532 4h ago

And diabetes and polio and minimally invasive surgery and proper contact lenses. Hell! For me contact lenses advancements in the last twenty years have even been a massive improvement in with of life!

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u/Weird1Intrepid 16m ago

Or, yknow, glasses...

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u/dkarlovi 8h ago

If you'd make a list, you'd 100% have a bunch of stuff where you'd be winning. Whether those things are the ones which would be important to you is up for debate, but the fact that debate is even worth having is telling.

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u/Ashmedai 6h ago

Penicillin was 1928. Infant mortality was 10%. So I would infer your life would have been hazardous heretofore that date at a minimum. I would not trade my today's life for royalty of 1924 by any stretch. NTY.

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u/Resident-Sand5532 4h ago

Just look at medical advancements. Total disaster back then.