Better and better 2

The historical Buddha was very pessimistic about humanity when he lived in India some 2 500 years ago. Most humans would face a difficult and painful time after death, he saw. He told as many as he could how to avoid future hell, but Buddhism has remained a teaching for a minority.

We could ask if the general conditions on earth has made it easier to follow ethical rules.

That would be a spin-off effect, of course. 

The method for getting a good life is following the ethical rules of no killing, stealing or lying. These rules are more important than any other rules or impulses. The principle is that good gives good. Bad gives bad.

In normal social life we advance our ambitions as our means advance, so we always live in an atmosphere of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. We want more and better. 

Thanks to modernity, we have more and more of a choice between these ideals, more or better. More is not always better. More food and drink is bad for many, for example.

Not long ago we could blame unethical actions on hard necessities, but at least some of these arguments are losing in relevancy.