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July 7, 2010
It's Getting Better All the Time
Global per capita income, corrected for inflation, had trebled in my lifetime,
life expectancy had increased by one third, child mortality had fallen by two-thirds, the population growth rate had halved. More people had got out of poverty than in all of human history before. When I was born, 36% of Americans had air conditioning. Today 79% of Americans below the poverty line had air conditioning. The emissions of pollutants from a car were down by 98%. The time you had to work on the average wage to buy an hour of artificial light to read by was down from 8 seconds to half a second.Not only are human beings wealthier, they are also healthier, wiser, happier, more tolerant, less violent, more equal. Check it out - the data is clear. -- Matt Ridley: Down with Doom: How the World Keeps Defying the Predictions of Pessimists
Posted by Vanderleun at July 7, 2010 9:17 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.