You don’t need to look very far to find bad news about the world. In fact, you don’t need to look for it — it’ll come to you if you spend virtually any time online or looking at the television. However, while it’s obviously important to dedicate some time to the bad side of the world, it would be wrong to have that as your entire worldview. There are many bad elements in the world. But there are also a lot of good elements, too. And actually, on balance, you could say that the world is a much better place than most people think. Here’s why.
Healthcare is Improving
Humans are pretty good at taking things for granted. For instance, let’s think about healthcare. If you live in a place that has always had healthcare, then you probably think that it’s a natural force of nature or something. In fact, it was people that made it happen. If humanity was as bad as people thought, then hospitals wouldn’t exist. Also, there are many corners of the world that haven’t had healthcare in the past, yet today do. That’s significant progress that it would be foolish to overlook.
Access to Education
The global rate of people attending schools has risen significantly in the past few decades. Now, if you were one of those people that didn’t like having to go to school, then that might not sound like a great idea. But in areas of the world that have been education-deprived in the past, it’s a game changer. It can transform a society in a generation. The next time you’re getting annoyed about vacant popular culture or things like that, try to remember that some of the most annoying elements of the world don’t matter at all. And the things that do matter are on the rise.
The Justice System
There’s much we can say about crime. For one thing, there’s a chance that crime rates are at an all-time low (but since reporting of crime is at an all-time high, you probably didn’t have that impression). There’s also much to be said for the justice system. It’s awful that murders and serious crimes happen. But as the Daniel Fung arrest case shows us, the people who are responsible for these crimes are often brought to justice. It’s not perfect — the ideal world would be one in which crime didn’t exist — but it’s getting there.
Poverty is Decreasing in a Massive Way
The people who complain about the world the most are often the ones who are shrouded in privilege. They have a job, food in the fridge, friends, and so on. But try telling the people who have been taken out of extreme poverty in the past two decades that the world is getting worse. It’s not for them. The rate at which extreme poverty has fallen is a miracle of humanity — in some corners of the world, it’s gone from 60% of the population to just 8% in a matter of thirty years.
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