best time to be alive

[mollykins]

Considering every aspect of life including the person such as race, religion, gender and age, as well as how well of they were (probably quite would be the answer)

aswell as when they'd be alive and where, (considering disease, taxes, crime etc)

who and when would be the best time to be alive in the history of humanity?

Hoepfully that made sense.

I'd say perhaps a victorian mill owner. Many cures for diseases had been found, I don't think taxes were that high, there wasn't the world wars to harm you . . . . . .

[Greedyfly]

There will always be massive drawbacks. I would say there is no best time.

[mollykins]

I supose as standards of living and health rise, technology to harm people and taxes rise and the such like.

[squarebear]

Hardly known for their healthcare though Molly. Saw your leg off if it went bad!
I am quite happy in today's world.

[craft1948]

During my life-time the best decade has been the 60's.
A lot less violence, enough technology to enhance your life but not take it over, little if any unemployment, and great music.

[mollykins]

yeah but things were getting better and stuff like cholera and pox were gotten rid of.

[rowanwitch]

Celtic britain if one could be a wisewoman/healer...hard work but respected and women were held in much higher esteem

[Mosaic]

I might be a late 18th century country squire - many comforts provided by manufacturing and empire-building, cheap labour and low prices. I could even be magnanimous if I wanted. If.

[Greedyfly]

If I had to choose when I wanted to live I would also choose the 60's. For the sheer fact that the music was awesome and I truly believe I would have fit in better then.

[mollykins]

I wouldn't know craft, did they still have the death penalty then? I'm sure they did. Plus a lot of people where high.

intresting choice rowan . . .

[rowanwitch]

As I am interested in plants and their uses both healing and magical it seems a good place to start...

[craft1948]

Well the last execution was I think 1964, but it's a matter of opinion as to whether that's a good or bad thing. Drugs were around but not in the quantities there are today.

[mollykins]

and it's been in place in most countries for most of the time.

[Count-A-Strong]

Interesting question Molly. I think for people living in western society NOW is pretty good compared to other eras but for those living in war zones (of which there are many) or 3rd world countries there is little improvement from our middle ages.

[jno]

smallpox didn't die out until the 1970s or so. There wasn't a cholera vaccine until 1900, and people still contract it occasionally. And there were lots of 19th century wars (Crimea, Zulu, America, many many more). The real question is whether you'd have been liable to die in any of these ways. If you were rich and not living in cramped conditions, with access to a varied diet and safe water (possibly living in the countryside if you didn't need to find work in the cities), and able to avoid being pressed into the navy, you'd have had as good a chance as anyone.

[mollykins]

helen that's why i said a mill owner, they had luxuries such as being able to afford clean water, food and medicine without the danger of actually working in the mill.

[mollykins]

jno, like you say there were those wars, but it wasn't like ww1 or 2 where the enemy were bombing you and there was conscription (i don't think)

[mollykins]

well they had better lives than people of the dark ages, that's for certain.

eat as much as you can, vomit then eat some more, given lots of prunes if you haven't pooed in the last 10 hours or something, reasonable healthcare such as the mouldy bread later developed into penicillin, or was that the egyptians only.

[jno]

no, they didn't have conscription until WW1, mollykins. But they did have press gangs who would basically kidnap people and make them sailors in the navy

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

Funnily enough, life in the Middle Ages was actually better in many ways than later life in cities in the Industrial Revolution - they ate better, and their skeletons seem to be taller than those fo their descendants. But it wasn't necessarily much longer; there were all sorts of things to die from (childbirth was a common one) and very little effective medicine.