Everything's Better But People

It's hard to ignore the constant progress that's taking place in society.  Almost all consumer goods are getting better: computers are getting faster and cheaper, cars are becoming more reliable, houses are getting bigger and better-built, and on down the line.  But what about people themselves?  Are people improving at the rate of other things, or improving at all?

This question contains an inbuilt assumption: that people need to and should improve, and that this is somehow "better".  I will put this issue aside, except to mention that many people naturally have a desire to improve themselves, and that this improvement can have spillover benefits onto others.

I fear that people in general aren't improving, and that this is due to weakened social bonds.  Robert Putnam's book, "Bowling Alone", shows that people are socializing less nowadays than they used to.  And this lack of social interaction has consequences, because proper socialization is where good behavior can be learned.

For example, today in Las Vegas someone fired gunshots at a school bus full of kids.  You would think with all of society's progress, these things shouldn't be happening.  We can put a man on the moon, we can connect millions of people through the internet, we can ship products all across the globe, yet society is still left with basic problems that don't seem to be going away.

What's also uneasy is the growth of the so-called "gold collar workers".  These workers are described as 18 to 25 year olds who have little interest in improving their lot, but instead spend their money on expensive consumer goods and live at home with their parents.  I see a good bit of this in Las Vegas, young people spending their money on decorating a car that barely runs instead of spending the money on something with long-term benefit (like education). 

What's the answer to improving this mess?  I'm not too sure.  Capitalism and democracy go hand-in-hand and further, Americans don't like to be told what to do.  The government seems unwilling or unable to step up in many of the problems facing society.  Two-thirds of the population is overweight, and all the government does is revise the Food Pyramid that everyone ignored anyways.  What about individual responsibility?  Well, it doesn't seem to be working that well so far.  And in our system, when someone defaults on their individual responsibility, others can pay the price.  When lunatics are shooting at school buses, this becomes everyone's problem.  We can lock criminals away, but the smarter move is to stop them before they start - before they can hurt anyone else.  Some type of collective action seems necessary, because many people left to their own devices aren't doing very well.