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Most measures we typically see are economic measures. They are indeed going up: fewer people life in poverty, and all dependent variables like lifespan and education improve too.

However, economic growth is currently tied to exploiting finite resources with ever increasing speed. Consequently, all measures that look at natural resources give rise to increasing existential angst: The oceans are empty, biodiversity is crashing; the climate is messed up, likely beyond the point where we can prevent catastrophic warming; topsoil is eroding at an amazing rate, aquifers are depleting; plastics, and other "forever chemicals" keep accumulating with as of yet mostly unknown effects.

So while the economy keeps growing, it looks like we're just increasing the speed at which we'll hit the wall.




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