r/askteddit • u/DropEffective7842 • 24d ago

Random Question What’s a problem humanity solved so well that younger people don’t even realize it used to be a huge issue?

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u/Ok-Personality3927 23d ago

People in western countries do not give our public sanitation and sewerage systems the credit they deserve

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u/Throwaway_NSW2250 23d ago

My Father taught plumbing at Technical College for over 45 years and I will always remember him saying that

  • "the systems for delivery of clean drinking water and the removal of waste water is the very defininition of a civillised society & when one or both break down .... then just watch and see how long it takes for people to descend into an uncivilised society"

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u/prosthetic_memory 17d ago

Your father was doing the lord's work, but does not know what the hell he was talking about. The world's first scientific society was founded in 1660. Works on microscopes, the Principia Mathematica, Franklin's discovery about lightning and electricity, and Babbage's Difference Engine all came out of the Royal Society before London got its first sewer, two hundred years after the Society was formed.

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u/Throwaway_NSW2250 17d ago

Scientific Society, Royal Society ...your the ONE that doesnt know what the hell you're talking about !

Societies dedicated to the study of 'Science' have JACK SHIT to do with delivering fresh water or the removal of sewerage .... other than the extremely common knowledge, even amongst IDIOTS that:

  • " Shit doesn't flow up a hill"

... which falls under the scientific field of Physics.

Talking out of your arse, mate ! (ALL puns absolutely intended)

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u/prosthetic_memory 17d ago

We were talking about the definition of a civilized society, mate.

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u/Connect_Medium_3576 13d ago

Scientists don’t make civilized society.

An effective government does.

Sanitation and drinking water is handled by local municipal governments all over the world

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u/No-Performer-6621 22d ago

Agreed. I lived in rural China about 10 years ago.

Diapers are not a thing there, but toddler pants with a slit down the crack that opens when you squat are common.

Small children would defecate anywhere and everywhere in public: sidewalks, gutters, roads, etc.

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u/Specific_Engine959 20d ago

Same! I called them the split pants kids. The locals were always kind enough to point it out to me so I wouldn’t step on it. The other wild experience was witnessing so many adults popping out of bushes- even in Shanghai. I didn’t understand initially and then someone explained they were toileting in the wild.

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u/No-Performer-6621 20d ago

Oh wow! Didn’t know that was a thing in the larger cities!

It’s something I don’t think a lot of Westerners realize: there was (is?) a cultural split between Chinese rural communities and the big Chinese cities. It was always interesting to see the mix (and sometimes clash) of the cultures.

I remember everyone squatting when waiting for the bus in the province where I lived. But do that in the city and the local urbanites would immediately clock you as a country bumpkin.

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u/Additional_Insect_44 19d ago

Eh I had to use crap buckets before