If the numbers are correct, the infant mortality accounted for 92% of
all deaths in New York City during this week in 1907!! Without doing
any research on this topic, I am confident that infant mortality in NYC
during the same week in 2007 was considerably lower. Wow – what a
difference 100 years has made.
Life might have been getting worse over the past century but death seems to have been getting better.
In
Also only 151 adult deaths in a week, or fewer than 8,000 a year on a population of 4.7m. Seems low – young population, summer, freak week?
By what measure was “Life getting worse over the past century”?
“By what measure was “Life getting worse over the past century”?”
How about by measures of crime, civility, etc? And if one might be permitted to offer an opinion without someone demanding a measure thereof, then one might also suggest the following: music, architecture, art, literature, bloody celebrities, decreasing independent-mindedness, and the increasing incidence of silly scientistic persons demanding that every opinion be supported by a measurement. These are immeasurable matters of taste, of course, but since when did matters of taste not matter in life?
“How about by measures of crime, civility, etc?”
if those are your key QoL criteria, I pity you.
“And if one might be permitted to offer an opinion without someone demanding a measure thereof, then one might also suggest the following: music, architecture, art, literature”
You’d have to be mentally ill to suggest that more good music, architecture, art and literature was produced in (say) 1907 than 2007. That’s not a taste thing – it applies even if you exclude all pop music, ‘modernist’ architecture and conceptual art.
“bloody celebrities”
I’ll give you that one.
“decreasing independent-mindedness”
Compared with the *Edwardians*? When conformism within society was at its highest ever levels?
“and the increasing incidence of silly scientistic persons demanding that every opinion be supported by a measurement”
Goddamn facts are so annoying, aren’t they?
“[I]f those are your key QoL criteria, I pity you.”
Not much of a riposte.
“You’d have to be mentally ill to suggest that more good music, architecture, art and literature was produced in (say) 1907 than 2007. That’s not a taste thing – it applies even if you exclude all pop music, ‘modernist’ architecture and conceptual art.”
I must be mentally ill. Still, no accounting for taste (especially when it is believed wrongly to be a matter of fact).
“Goddamn facts are so annoying, aren’t they?”
What are you blathering on about? Is every opinion of yours supported by a measurement? Do you not have qualitative opinions? Do you not, for instance, believe that a sunny day in Whitby is more pleasant than a rainy day in Grimsby?
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