We humans seem predisposed to think the world is going to hell in a hand basket, and that life was better back in our day.” No doubt, middle-aged Romans carped to their friends in 20 A.D. about the way the darn kids wear their togas these days.
Modern media’s obsession with “if it bleeds, it leads,” doesn’t help brighten our outlook. But, as The Economist recently noted, in many ways, this is the best time in human history. The next time someone starts griping about the state of the world, share these facts:
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- Global poverty rates have been reduced by 50% in the past 20 years.
- About 70% of the world now has modern sanitation, up from 24% in 1980.
- In 1820, 94% of humanity lived on the equivalent of $2 per day. In 1990, that figure was 37%. But 2015, it had been reduced to less than 10 %.
- Wars are smaller and less frequent than in past centuries.
- Homicides are down.
- Terrorism is a problem, but not as big a threat as some media would have us believe.
What’s more, we’ve made huge progress in recent years towards eradicating diseases such as polio around the world.
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The Economist notes that human life is getting better because of our accumulated knowledge and our ability to easily share what we’ve learned as a species. As a Swedish economic historian told The Economist, “The most important resource is the human brain, which is pleasantly reproducible.”
Check out their video of this list below:
Amen to that!
