I would 100% take the lifestyle of a 2022 SWE over a 1918 Rockefeller (or maybe a better reference is 1889 when he was 50). It's not even close by my way of reckoning.
I think in due course you'll get to see how impotent a lot of modern medicine is when faced with certain maladies especially those that come with advanced age, e.g. cancers, strokes etc. We're far better at telling you what you're going to die of vs 100 years ago but not really all that much better at keeping you alive.
Yeah, I won't argue that we made no progress. But most of the amazing life expectancy progress came from combatting infant mortality. As you can see from your own sources, the life expectancy of a senior adult only increased by a handful of years between the early 20th century and now. If anything I consider the progress in medicine to be lagging compared to progress made in most other areas like automation, transporation, communication etc.
Absolutely! In the 1920's the son of the president of The United States died from an infected blister he got playing tennis. That's a fear I don't have. I love music, and even a fast food worker has better access to recording than Rockefeller did. I probably listen to more music in a year than Rockefeller heard on his lifetime. In 1911 hundreds of people died when temperatures went over 100 in North East New York. We build a city in the middle of the desert where temperatures reach 110 almost every year and fast food workers in Las Vegas are not dying by the hundreds.
I would prefer to live in 2022 USA no matter my profession than anyone in 1918. Antibiotics, computers / internet, cancer therapy, airplanes, you don’t have half your kids die of random stuff before age 18, the list goes on and on
