This will hopefully encourage you and brighten your day.
We live in a world that continually shoves negative news, violence, and tragedy down our throats.
It may feel like the world is getting worse, darker, more evil, but it truly is getting better. The reason it feels like its continually getting worse is because we have the ability to share every little thing, true or false to everyone with the push of a button. We are exposed to negativity 24/7 and it has fully impacted our worldview.
As humans we are far more likely to pay attention to negativity as it is a survival skill that is hard wired into us. You can become addicted to negativity.
I run into a lot of people who are scared, anxious, nervous on whether or not this is "the end". I run into people who talk about the "good ol' days".. or if we could just go back to how it was 20, 30, 50, years ago we would be better. A lot of people are scared that millennials are going to ruin everything. As I have mentioned before in previous blogs, the universe is only going one way. That is forward. As it moves forward it continually gets better. Each generation has actually gotten better, smarter, wiser, it just looks different and that often scares people.
I have put a source section at the end of this blog, so you know I am not just making up the following encouraging facts about this beautiful world we live in.
America - as much as you are told we are hated, a target for terrorist, code red alert, ban everyone, the rest of the world is actually pretty fond of our country. 69% of the world likes America. We have one of the highest percentages. It continues to rise as well. We are actually pretty nice people. We just have a media that highlights the outliers who think we are terrible.
Violence in America - This is a super hot topic. We see people being killed and murdered all day long. You would think that everyone is just killing everyone in America. In the 1970's there was a rate of 48 violent crimes per 1000 people. That number has dropped to below 15 and continues to drop each year. This is because we are learning that violence does not solve anything. Talking things out over coffee is way nicer.
Poverty - Over the last 30 years, globally, absolute poverty has declined to an all new low of 17%. Some scientists and researchers believe that over the next 20 years we will be able to get rid of poverty on Earth. This may still mean that there is a gap between the super rich and poor, but we can at least look forward to everyone having their basic needs provided for.
Literacy - 500 years ago only 10% of you would be able to read this in the world. As of 2003 literacy rates have hit close to 100% Globally. This is a real fact. Almost everyone in the world can now read and write.
Child Labor - We hear all the time about child labor, that our goods are being made in terrible conditions. A lot of this is true. A lot of that has created awareness, but what they don't tell you is that over the last 16 years, child labor has decreased more than 50%.
Food - The amount of income we spend on food has dropped more than 50% since 1960. We spend on average only 6% of our income on food. This is because food is being made safer, with better technology, in more humane ways, which means that we can help end poverty and hunger all around the world in our lifetime.
Babies - Everyone loves babies! With the help of doctors, scientist, technology, robotics, we have been able to drop the infant mortality rate over 50% in the last 25 years.
Teen Births - Sex is everywhere, we have Teen Mom shows, we have the media and TV shows showing high school teenagers dealing with sex younger and younger. The actual truth is that teenage births has declined by around 50% since 1960. This is due to better education, better birth control, and younger people actually being more aware and responsible.
Ozone - The ozone is actually making a recovery. Over 300 scientist have indicated that the Ozone layer is recovering and is on track to be back where it was in 1980 before it was depleting over the next few decades. This is because we are being more responsible with what we use and Mother Nature seems to know how to take care of itself beyond us. That's pretty cool.
Life Span - We are living longer. Each year we cure more diseases, find new ways to live not only longer but healthier. In the early 1900's people were expected to live around 50 years. Now life expectancy is around 80 years old and rising faster than ever. If we have increased 30 years in the last hundred years, just think what we can increase over the next 80 years. Hi 200's. I am excited to write this blog for at least another 100 years.
So hopefully these facts make you smile. We are getting smarter, stronger, wiser, more peaceful, and carrying for others better. We live in an amazing time.
Sources as well as interesting reads:
The World Likes the United States Better Than You Think (Source: Forbes Magazine)
Declining rates of absolute poverty (Source: Our World in Data, Max Roser)
Child Labor on the decline (Source: International Labor Organization)
Income spent on food (Source: USDA, Economic Research Service, Food Expenditure Series)
Infant Mortality Rate (Source: Devpolicy, UN Interagency Group for Child Mortality Est. 2013)
Teen birth rates (Source: Vox, Centers for Disease Control)
U.S. violent crime rates (Source: Gallup, Bureau of Justice Statistics)
Ozone layer on the mend (Source: Science Magazine)
Life Span (Source: National Institute of Aging)
Peter Diamandis was the inspriaton for this post. He has lots of great resources on how our world is improving.