NO ONE HAS IT HARDER THAN THEIR FATHER DID:

Today we use far fewer materials than we once did to get the same things done--a phenomenon known as "dematerialization." But, paradoxically, this efficiency seems to drive up overall consumption. In Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization, a deeply researched statistical profile of global material use, author Vaclav Smil lays out just how much stuff we need to live modern lives. [...]

...But We Consume More Than Ever

As efficiency rises, so does affordability, putting ever more products within reach of ever more consumers. As a result, the amount of resources extracted for every person on the planet has skyrocketed even as the global population has multiplied.

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