Was Life Better Before The Industrial Revolution?

No.

 

Of course. But it would answer your question.

 

Apparently they all plan to die young.

Yeah, mindless obedience to them (and to the local community) was required. There's nothing I hate more than mindless obedience.

Just look around you at all of the things you own that make your life better in some way. And then throw in modern medicine. How much of that existed 150 years ago?

 

^
I don't think close family bonds were to blame for that, Karen

 

You really got that one right sister. Blindly following family can be just as precarious as blindly following a political party or religion. My family lied to me my entire life about college. In the last half of my senior year I learned they blew any money they had on big houses and fast cars we couldn't afford. My whole childhood had been a façade facilitated by easy credit and foolish, lying parents. AND grandparents.

My only choice for an education after high school as a student loan my parents refused to cosign but I later learned was because their credit was toast, or the military where I did not belong. I blame myself for being so foolish. I had the grades for scholarships and then the poverty needed for grants and could have avoided the military entirely. But I was too focused on being "smart". Most of my family has died off. Their lies still haunt me, but they keep me from repeating such a mistake with my own children.

We live in a tiny house on a couple of acres on a mountain. College for the children IS paid for. (THEN I got the fast car!)

 

I don't know if the cutting of close family bonds is a good thing or a bad thing, or a neutral thing, or a case-specific thing...

Before the invention of locomotives, most people never saw more of the world than they could see within walking distance.

Most of my extended family lives 1000 miles away and some of them, I wouldn't recognize even if I saw them if I wasn't re-introduced.

 

Why would you need a fast car?

I drive a 2000 Toyota Camry with over 200,000 miles on it.

Point A ---> Point B.

But we are probably getting off topic.

 

Sounds like you got simply screwed over.

 

there is a lot about modern society I hate. I think cars were probably the worst post industrialization invention, or the most damning at least. Cars have also spawned 2 more things I hate - the suburbs and war for oil



he amount of trash we as consumers throw out fills me with anxiety. I also hate seeing signs of humanity (litter) in places that should remain untouched by human hands. The widespread pollution of our rivers is also pretty depressing.

as a nature lover I love to imagine what the earth looked like pre industrial revolution. Unfortunately, except for the most remote places on earth you are pretty likely to see signs of industrialism. I live a couple of hours away from the blue ridge mountains and it can be difficult to find a spot where you can't see the lights of a city or town sparkling below.

I won't even go into the population boom allowed by the industrial revolution.

I would love nothing more than a chance to experience the aforementioned blue ridge mountains as the Cherokee tribe saw them before European settlers came.


but the real kicker is I'm not sure if I would be willing to give up advanced medical care, heating and air conditioning, and indoor plumbing to do so.

 

Before the I.R. (Hope you don't mind me calling it that ) If you wanted a beer you had to go to someones house that made beer and he would say "what have you got to swap for the beer " you would go like " well I make bootlaces " to which he would say " i got plenty Bootlaces , what I need is a bucket " so you would have to go looking for a bucket maker that needed bootlaces
So now we got trains ,planes ,lorry's and alkies so its much better nowadays since the I.R.
and it all started in England !! home of the piss artist

 

As it seems pre industrial life was especially better for pre industrial people

 

England rules!!!!

I am not a racist, but if you read my other posts, I have some "pride" in what European people have accomplished, and I would say that England did the most!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

What an achievement!

And I'm only 1/8th English.

I'm more Irish, Italian, and Scottish.

 

Isn't it a bigger accomplishment to expand a great empire in pre-industrial times?

 

How can you not like cars? don't you like driving to the grocery store?

 

And England did that too.

 

But not just England. And other pre-industrial empires were a lot bigger.

 

Yea, I could have left it at that, being screwed over.

Instead I worked my ass off and paid my own way through college. I later paid for my wife's college. Then the first kid. A vast improvement over the previous 2 generations of lying miscreants who clearly stole me as an infant.

 

1. Great Smokey Mountains National Park
2. Linville Gorge
3. Pisgah National Forest - east and west sections

Another catch 22: Without a modern economy and technology, you may have never had the chance to explore those mountains the way you can now. My grandparents said getting around our mountains used to be very slow and difficult.

If we just do a little better job of managing things, we can have the best of both worlds now -- pristine wilderness all day long, and good food, indoor plumbing, and a comfy bed after the sun goes down.

Need? Humans don't need much, besides food, water, shelter, and medical care.

 

What pre-industrial empires were bigger than Englands?

 

I like that I can "travel the world" on Google Earth.

Why would I want to spend thousands to visit the Taj Mahal when I can see a satellite shot of it and pictures of it.

And without modern technology, the option of flying their wouldn't be available in the first place.

I've done the whole "back to nature" living in the woods thing.... it gets old. It's not a good long-term plan.