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430 points mhb | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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PeterHolzwarth ◴[] No.46179223[source]
"A woman's work is never done."

In our agrarian past, the cultural division of labor at the time said that men worked the field, women ran the home. And that later job was brutal, never-ending, and consumed all waking hours until the day she died.

Men broke their backs in the field, women consumed their lives doing the ceaseless work that never ended, every waking moment. (And occasionally helped out in the field, too).

Running a family was a brutal two-person job -- and the kids had to dive in to help out the second they could lift something heavier than a couple pounds.

We forget so easily that for the entire history of our species - up until just recently - simply staying alive and somewhat warm and minimally fed was a hundred-hour-a-week job for mom and dad.

There are important downsides, but the Green Revolution - and dare I say it, the industrial revolution - was truly transformative for our species.

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nowittyusername ◴[] No.46179422[source]
When humans domesticated animals and started tending to the fields is when IMO it all went down hill. That change brought in modern civilization with all its advantages but moreeso its disadvantages and maladaptive behaviors of the human mind. We shoulda stayed hunter gatherers, I am almost certain we would have been happier.
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PeterHolzwarth ◴[] No.46179444[source]
You first.

And no cheating by bringing antibiotics with you.

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1. Aloha ◴[] No.46180014[source]
Indeed!

Antibiotics and Insulin - those two things have saves untold lives.

Before about 1920, the difference between rich and poor and the likelihood to recover from disease had more to do with ability to rest and diet.

The rich and poor alike died to tuberculosis (which was often a death sentence until antibiotics), simple cysts, all sorts of very basic bacterial infections killed in droves.

At the risk of sidetracking this further - it was only after insulin where the idea that healthcare could be somewhat that could be a right became somewhat reasonable (before the late gilded age, doctors often did as much harm as good) - every lifesaving innovation we have made sense, were often very modest amounts of money is the difference between life and death make that argument stronger.

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2. robocat ◴[] No.46180263[source]
> Antibiotics and Insulin - those two things have saves untold lives.

Type 1 is about 0.5% prevalence. Type 1 diabetes was a rapid death sentence before insulin discovery in the 1920s.

Type 2 is more common (maybe 10% but highly dependent on country) and it is a relatively modern problem

Infant mortality has dropped to 0.5% from 7% 100 years ago - so that's more significant.

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3. Aloha ◴[] No.46184160[source]
Better food, living conditions and sanitation has helped greatly.