Has your life improved since 1966?
From Pew Research, is life better than 50 years ago for people like you?
The answers aren’t going to mean much about reality, more about the sort of people we are or want to think we are. As Fred Clark puts it
If you ask those of us who are 18-53 years old for our opinions about what life was like before we either existed or have any memory, we’ll give you an answer. And that speculative, possibly even informed, opinion may mean something or other in the aggregate. Maybe it tells us something fuzzy about general optimism or pessimism. Or maybe something about the dismal state of history, social studies, civics and science education.
Or, for the people who do have memories of the mid-sixties…
Age 65-70: I peaked in high school. Go away, nerd, or I’ll give you a swirlie.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »