>Now we know it's the invention of agriculture, which caused arthritis
>in women several millennia ago. Let's doff all our clothes and revert
>to hunting and gathering!
Given the choice between being a hunter gatherer, or working in the English coal mines in the 1800's, which would you choose between?
Granted this is a false binary, since you might choose to live in 1800 England over living in Africa a 50,000 years ago, and you might prefer to live in the US in 2000 most of all.
But the point is, as Carrol said, the notion that things are getting monotonically better every day for everyone is false. Even the assumption that overall things are generally improving for most is untrue. There is no inherent tendency towards progress. Had the Cuban missle crisis led to nuclear war, you would definitely wish humanity was still hunting and gathering. It didn't happen, but it might have, and might still.
Brett