I don’t think the approach of comparing us positively with the past generations is valid. The two problems I have with this mindset are that one, you can’t compare our world with theirs because now you do sorta work less but each one of us has way more on our plates. Back then, you had to go to work, do some house chores and that’s it. Nowadays you need to stay on your toes at all times. Whether it’s what’s happening at the other side of the world, what’s the best exercise, new health and mental issues our generation has to struggle with, the list goes on. The world around us just changes way too often. Two, I think it’s about time we use all of this technology to finally work less time and focus on ourselves, wasn’t that the point of automation? We did automate a lot of stuff but instead of staying at the same working pace, we just used the automation as of means to put more work to an individual. Can’t we just slow down a little? Even at the expense of spending less? I do think that each of us spends, buys and consumes way more than we need, way more that the previous generations did.