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'Millions' was meant to be hyperbolic.

This is not that controversial, I'd claim. It's almost, I'd argue, a standard among anthropologists. There was a famous paper by Marshall Sahlins in the 60s that made something along the lines of this claim, as have many since.

Again, I don't have tuberculosis, typhus, typhoid fever, cholera, diphtheria, small pox... what's not clear is the extent to which hunter-gatherers, or even just sustainable producers more generally, also did or did not have these diseases.

My point remains -- it's far, far from self-evident that we are somehow 'better off' individually or as a species than during prehistoric times.

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ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

The word comfortable is indescriptive at best.

I have a nice fancy recliner I never use. In fact I rarely even lean on the back of a chair. My mattress is super firm.

But I don't have alot of back problems, considering that I did in the past. I never took any drugs for it even when I had sciatica, but what I did do was to start sleeping on the floor for a time. That with a better diet cured it.

In 1900 very few had air conditioning, now we have people who die from the heat.

Even if we have gained more than we lost, what we gained is going to largely evaporate in this Depression 2. Or part 2 maybe, not sure if I can call it that.

T