So, we're at an impasse. *shrug* nothing to be done about it, I spose.

Quote Originally Posted by DB_Hunter
I'm not claiming to be a sage on stats, I would not be able to do that for you.

However, addressing your implicit point of whether things were ever better in the past, I think that can be answered satifactorily fom present day society. Things are getting pretty screwed up, I mean when you have polticians (in the UK) suggesting control order for babies for the first time in history, you know something is seriously wrong. That's one example only, and by itself could be anamolous, but there are a host similar initiatives being carried out, which I am not addressing simply due to the fact that I would just go on and on and on.

Crime has reached epidemic proportions, societal relations are a mess and economically people are being worked to near death for a minimal increase in living standards from say a few decades ago. This clearly indicated a downward gradient in living standards, and I'm saying that as long as society holds on to its current values this will not change.
Violent crime rates are actually substantially down in the US. Since 1994, violent crime has dropped by roughly half (from between 40 and 50 victims per 1000 people down to around 20 victims per 1000 people now). It was on a decline until 2005, and 2005-2006 it had a slight rise (source). Property crime is similarly at a low (source). Drug-related crimes are on the rise, however -- which might just be a side-effect of increased enforcement (source), or might be increased prevalence.

The UK has social control issues. So does the US, but the most onerous measures that people have tried to get legislated have generally not held up. People are waking up to the need for privacy and personal liberty ... which is one reason the mid-term elections over here brought about wholesale changes.

For non-whites, the western world as a whole has never been so accepting. The 1960's brought about the civil rights movement and the end of Jim Crow, the 1970's brought about cultural revolution, the 80's and 90's brought about growing acceptance and non-whites climbing the corporate ladder and attaining higher levels of education. Opportunity that wasn't there 40 years ago is there now.

Really, if you're going to say there's a decline in progress based on social control and civil liberties concerns, I'd say that decline started in 1994 in the UK (when they started getting serious about putting cameras everywhere), and 2001 in the US (when the term "in the post-9/11 world" was coined, and started to get passed around indiscriminately to justify terrible ideas). But even in that context, I'd say that there's other factors in play that mitigate that.

Regardless, I'd rather be in this moment than any previous time in history.