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Tl;dr: who knows?
This is an interesting question. I’m sure someone will say yes and use data. My thoughts are I don’t know and we can’t truly know.
If we’re more aware of the shittiness, then how can we be sure it wasn’t just as shitty before or less shitty than now? Data relies on documentation and documentation has been, and continues to be, reported sporadically or things are unsolved and thus omitted.
It's both. Capitalism runs a boom/bust cycle over each century. The "Great Depression" was about 100 years ago, following which the advent of union reforms and bunch of other things you should read about yourself cuz I forget fixed working conditions for actual people, and then the capitalists spent the next hundred years eroding those rights, basically (heavily oversimplified). the previous century was the same thing. It's a shitty system and if it's really the best we can do (hint: it's not) then we don't deserve the mantle we've placed on ourselves that declares us an intelligent species.
then the capitalists spent the next hundred years eroding those rights
Reforms dont prevent end end stage capitalism, only delays it.
Probably the latter. Almost nothing that sucked today sucked less 20, 40, 60, 80 etc... years ago. They almost universally sucked more. We're just more aware.
For example, cops have always been beating black people; but that wasn't common knowledge for most until recently.
I would recommend you to read the book factfulness, it's available for free because Bill Gates thought everyone should read it.
Definitely the latter. If I can recommend a book please read it despite it's title: "Everything is Fucked" by Mark Manson.
The title is supposed to be a joke as when things get better we still will find even the smallest of problems, everything isn't fucked it's our perception. This is human nature. There's other really interesting observations in the book that I really enjoyed, but that's the main theme.
There are things that are better and things that are worse
Things are shittier by design. It's called planned obsolescence. Things are designed to maximize profits:
I don't know if we're more aware or just more sensitive to it.
Mostly we're more aware of the shittiness. On the whole, most things that were problems decades, generations, or centuries ago are objectively, measurably better now. However, there are specific things that are recurring problems or newer problems that have never existed before. Some of those are very serious problems that we are currently trying to, don't yet know how to, or have failed to deal with. Things like climate change, mass misinformation in the information age, nuclear threats, gun violence, political corruption, war, and threats reproductive rights, LGBT human rights, and religious rights. So.... bit of column A, bit of column B.
It certainly feels shittier now than what I remember the 90s being like.
Neither, we just tend to look at the past with rose-colored glasses, forgetting how shitty things have always been.
According to the Grandpa association the good old times are way back before you're born, so how would you even know?
Things are as shitty as they where, maybe even worse. Sometimes it is fabulous though.
Source...I am over half a century old and manic depressed.
