Are We Better Off than Ever?
Summary
Many people believe humans are not improving their lot, but the facts dispute this. People tend to look at the simpler past nostalgically, through rose coloured glasses. But we are living longer, have more wealth, job security is better and we are safer than ever before.
Mental health is important because in spite of the material improvements, are we happier? Your view may be coloured by natural optimism or pessimism.
But good news doesn’t sell newspapers or TV. We are bombarded by every disaster in the world instantly! There are plenty, as the world population has grown so large and communication is instant and prolific. It glues most people to the screen. But does it affect you personally in your suburb or town? Very unlikely.
Of course, there are problems such as the setback of Covid worldwide. Also, extreme weather, floods and fires but new (and cheaper) technology world wide will eventually fix it, probably at one minute to midnight.
The video below is short but informative:
There are many other videos explaining the improvements, such as:
Some Facts
The figures below show how living conditions in the world have improved, just in the last 25 to 30 years,
- Poverty: Those in the world living in extreme poverty are about 9.2% today. The number has declined 74.1% in the last 25 years. United Nations has set a goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030.
- Life Expectancy: The global average increased to 72.6 years in 2020, from 65.3 in 1990 and about 30, centuries ago. Women in childbirth and children before age 5 dying are near zero in first world countries. The trend is similar in developing countries.
- World Population: The latest revision from the United Nations indicates the world’s population will probably peak at 10.4 billion by 2080. The reasons are better education of women and more effective contraception. Many first world countries are not replacing their populations now.
- Clean Water: Access to clean water increased from around 76% in 1990 to 91% in 2020. China is developing devices for desalinating water, costing about $4 per family. Other devices produce potable water from the air.
- Access to Electricity: This has increased from around 76% of the world in 1990 to 87% in 2020.
- Wages per Capita: In spite of recent figures in Australia, wages over time, adjusted for inflation are increasing relative to the cost of living. This provides people with more resources to meet basic needs. Automation, AI and robots will reduce costs markedly.
- Crime: In England and USA, crime decreased over the last 30 years and violent crime has halved since the early 1990s. In Germany, violent deaths decreased by 40% since 2000. This trend is global.
- Education: Global literacy is up from around 76% in 1990 to 86% in 2020. 47% of the world has access to the internet, but this will increase dramatically over time. Institutions like Harvard and the Khan Academy offer free online learning, so people from poor countries with quality degrees will increase. Only a mobile phone is required, which most people now have!
- Wars: State or country versus country wars decreased significantly in the last 70 years. Democratic countries collectively are better equipped in terms of military sophistication and size to counter any attacks from non aligned countries. Extreme economic sanctions are a relatively new deterrent.
- Terrorism: Since 9/11, significant efforts by the international community and national governments have led to fewer attacks by Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
- Obesity: This goes against the trend. The level of obesity has trebled since 1975! Certainly, some people more easily gain weight than others, but surely it is a matter of degree, eating even less. Good diet, exercise and self control. Maybe easier said than done. But there were no fat people in most prisoner of war camps!
References
- Graphs of Improvement
- Steven Pinker’s Book, ‘Enlightenment Now’
- Hans Rosling’s Book ‘Factfulness’
- World Bank on Poverty
- ChatGPT
10 Responses
Agree many things have and will continue to improve.
Technology will continue to solve problems and improve living conditions.
I just heard China’s population has peaked.
The world may peak earlier than 2080. Let’s hope so but we won’t be here to see it.
One measure we are failing on apears to be loss of species: comples and multifactorial but likely a problem.
David
Good to hear from you. Yes, agree many species are disappearing. We are gaining the ability to ‘restore’ species, but whether that will be a priority, who knows?
Campbell
Nostalgia! The family, the culture and background and equally the hardships at the time I was young makes me feel then was much better than now. But the facts and statistics says otherwise. And having lived in Australia for almost 40 years, makes me think twice to go to the life that I had those days. And old age…..you need good health care!
Bala
Always good to hear from you. For me, this is a good time of life. No responsibilities, free time and family. Staying healthy is super important and there is much we can do in terms of diet and exercise, etc.
However, everyone is different and maybe not as fortunate, through circumstances beyond their control. Humour and company are paramount. Must have a laugh! Try this Dave Allen sketch-funny https://youtu.be/Mt7h3CghJEg
Thanks Campbell, another good summary.
The obesity issue is really a problem and I wonder what our life expectancy increase would be if it wasn’t for ever-increasing improvements in medical science.
Peter
Thanks and we can only speculate. It is of course because of the improved standard of living that many people are obese. Once again very few obese people in impoverished countries.
Life expectancy and it’s concurrent problems may seem solvable but the current attitude of handling mental problems doesn’t seem to be working. All very well to live longer but why have arbitrary ages for retirement. Why aren’t we working to make more use of the tremendous source of knowledge being rejected and in some cases denigrated. Experience is something you won’t find in Google!! John
John
Thanks as always for your comments. No, I think you are right about mental health. A lot of work to be done there.
Re retirement, yes a wealth of experience, although maybe not quite as relevant in today’s fast changing world? Might be the subject of a blog.
To be optimistic or pessimistic depends on what one focuses on. The video emphasised positive trends. More negative trends are occurring in terms of environmental pollution, declining biodiversity, human consumption and waste generation, climate change (which got a good mention) and human population growth which drives the other issues.
Graham
Graham
Good comments. I frequently hear people say ‘there are too many people in the world’. While that will plateau in the next few decades, as world education increases, as you mentioned, human population growth does cause most of the issues you raise.
There is a link between climate change and biodiversity, according to the UN (sorry the reference won’t link!).
Small armies of concerned scientists and entrepreneurs are working on all these issues, but as I mentioned in the blog, it is a race to midnight!