Say there is some function connecting some measure of wealth to some measure of happiness. And the function would be monotonically increasing.
Well, the measure of wealth in the modern era ought to be orders of magnitude bigger than it was in the stone age. Back then people had control over something like 10 items. There were no property laws to ensure you kept them, either. If you got a minor cut it could get infected and kill you, there was no modern medicine. Your wife had a massive 5% chance of dying each time she gave birth, and that was a lot of times.
Whatever you thought the function was, the value ought to be much, much higher now than then.
> Well, the measure of wealth in the modern era ought to be orders of magnitude bigger than it was in the stone age.
This is what I don't understand. Why should this make happiness "orders of magnitude bigger"? Isn’t it possible happiness has increased, just not by orders of magnitude?
Well, the measure of wealth in the modern era ought to be orders of magnitude bigger than it was in the stone age. Back then people had control over something like 10 items. There were no property laws to ensure you kept them, either. If you got a minor cut it could get infected and kill you, there was no modern medicine. Your wife had a massive 5% chance of dying each time she gave birth, and that was a lot of times.
Whatever you thought the function was, the value ought to be much, much higher now than then.