> In 1920, still a significant part of the population lived in absolutely abhorrent slums.
Define significant part. There are people in 2020 living in absolutely abhorrent slums. Most major US cities have areas meeting this definition.
> People on average worked 60 hours weeks,
Unsure if this is true. Even if it is, probably more accurate to say of those people who worked, they worked an average of 60 hours per week. But in 2020 a higher percentage of the population is working. Women in the workforce has grown exponentially. This too is a major shift / difference.
> Overall, the conditions of living were so harsh that people were numbing themselves with alcohol on a massive scale, ultimately leading to Prohibition Act.
Suicide rate in the US has been steadily climbing decade over decade. What does that say about our living conditions?
> Define significant part. There are people in 2020 living in absolutely abhorrent slums. Most major US cities have areas meeting this definition.
The 1920 slums meant living at 5-10 people per room, with no running water, in constant stench from the nearby factories. I doubt you can find many places like that in US today.
> Unsure if this is true.
That's what the data I've found says - average time worked in non-agriculture was close 3000 hours per year (so, 60 hours per week for 52 weeks per years - no sick days, no vacation). Plus constant risk of death or maiming, plus obviously inhaling all the deadly pollution etc. (Communist countries at least started recognizing that conditions of working in a coal mine or steel mill will literally kill you over time, and gave those workers full retirement after "just" 15-20 years of work there). Conditions were bad enough that people were risking their lives trying to start trade unions. Many were killed for it, too. How many trade union members were killed in 2022 in the US?
Women didn't worked at jobs, but slaved away at homes. Living without modern amenities plus large families meant a mountain of work. For example, my grandmother didn't have a washing machine and washed the bed linen by hand, which meant 10+ hours of physical labor. She insisted on doing that every 3 weeks or so.
> Suicide rate in the US has been steadily climbing decade over decade. What does that say about our living conditions?
Hard to say? For example, during wartime (cannot imagine harsher living conditions than war), number of suicides can go down significantly - they did in the UK during WWII for example. The relation between living conditions and suicides are complex at best.
So you seem to agree that 2020 and 1920 look very different, as far as the environment that people found themselves in. You seem to take issue with my claim that things have not improved for the better. Lets agree here instead that that some aspects of the environment are better and others are worse.
Going back to the subject at hand (fentanyl use), I think one can safely state that more people are dying from drug overdoses and suicide than they were in other decades in US history. Is it people who have changed, or their environment? And do you disagree that there is a correlation? Certainly there has to be. Availability of fentanyl correlates with fentanyl deaths, whereas unavailability of fentanyl would correlate with lack of fentanyl deaths. And so all the ways that the environment of 2020 is now better than in 1920, seems not to translate to less drug overdoses and suicides. And I can think of no better indicator of quality of life, than the indicator of how many people are choosing death over living.
What fraction of fentanyl deaths are by choice? The accidental OD's where it was unexpected are definitely not by choice. That's why fentanyl is being colored brightly, to help you see that something has been adulterated with it. Other drugs are being messed with by the middlemen, there is a supply chain problem.
Yes, less fentanyl in the supply chain would be the right answer.
Define significant part. There are people in 2020 living in absolutely abhorrent slums. Most major US cities have areas meeting this definition.
> People on average worked 60 hours weeks,
Unsure if this is true. Even if it is, probably more accurate to say of those people who worked, they worked an average of 60 hours per week. But in 2020 a higher percentage of the population is working. Women in the workforce has grown exponentially. This too is a major shift / difference.
> Overall, the conditions of living were so harsh that people were numbing themselves with alcohol on a massive scale, ultimately leading to Prohibition Act.
Suicide rate in the US has been steadily climbing decade over decade. What does that say about our living conditions?