More On "Abundance Denial"

I posted before on the topics of "Abundance Denial," and the "paradox of progress," which generally describe the phenomenon that even though wealth, prosperity and abundance for the AVERAGE person is at an all-time historical high (both U.S. and globally), the media constantly dwell on minor problems without celebrating the broader, more upbeat context in which they exist.

From Reason Magazine comes a good article "Now for the Good News: Mankind has never been healthier, wealthier or freer. Surprised?" Here is an excerpt:

"Worldwide, life expectancy has more than doubled, from 31 years in 1900 to 67 years today. India’s and China’s infant mortalities exceeded 190 per 1,000 births in the early 1950s; today they are 62 and 26, respectively. In the developing world, the proportion of the population suffering from chronic hunger declined from 37 percent to 17 percent between 1970 and 2001 despite a 83 percent increase in population. Globally average annual incomes in real dollars have tripled since 1950. Consequently, the proportion of the planet's developing-world population living in absolute poverty has halved since 1981, from 40 percent to 20 percent. Child labor in low income countries declined from 30 percent to 18 percent between 1960 and 2003.

Man’s remarkable progress over the last 100 years is unprecedented in human history. It’s also one of the more neglected big-picture stories. Ensuring that our incredible progress continues will require not only recognizing and appreciating the progress itself, but also recognizing and preserving the important ideas and institutions that caused it, and ensuring that they endure."