The World Is Getting Better; Charts And Graphs

[stromboli]

http://www.vox.com/2014/11/24/7272929/charts-thankful

Extreme poverty has fallen

This is probably the most important chart on this list. The extraordinary rate of economic growth in India and China â€" as well as slower but still significant growth in other developing countries â€" has led to a huge decline in the share of the world population living on less than $1.25 a day, from 53 percent in 1981 to 17 percent in 2011. That's a low bar for what counts as poverty, and some development experts are arguing we should be using a global poverty line of $10-15 a day instead, but that very debate is a sign of the tremendous progress made in recent decades.

Hunger is falling

This animated map shows the Global Hunger Index â€" a measure of undernutrition calculated by the International Food Policy Research Institute â€" across the world form 1990 to 2014. Red and orange countries have especially high levels of hunger and undernutrition, while green ones have lower rates. So it's encouraging to watch the globe gradually get less red and more green over the past 24 years.

And 22 more. This is not my opinion, it is statistics. Pretty sure it doesn't include projections of global warming or other negative aspects.

[josephpalazzo]

Capitalism doesn't work... oh wait...

[stromboli]

Right. The graph is a year old, so don't get too excited JP. The whole thing could go south in an instant. 

[widdershins]

This is wrong.  The world is getting worse.  You didn't used to have to lock your doors and now you do.  There didn't used to be so many murders and now there are.  That's how we know Jesus is almost here.  Don't you even fucking compare your facts and figures to my irrefutable anecdotal evidence in the form of me feeling less safe than I imagine I would have felt in 1920, were it not more than 50 years prior to my birth.

[Baruch]

Better depends on what you value.  Compared to Auschwitz in 1944, things are much better for Jewish people.  If you value more bullshit ... then the cows are hard at work.  GDP calculations are so many cow patties.  Frankly I don't care what a little goat herder in Somalia made last decade, and how he is making more now (given that Al Shabab is stronger, does it matter?).  But with more cow patties, then people have more fuel for cooking fires in the Third World.

Now I would like things to get better, and I work for things to get better ... but in my lifetime it is pretty much a wash in my own experience.

[Hydra009]

This is wrong.  The world is getting worse.  You didn't used to have to lock your doors and now you do.  There didn't used to be so many murders and now there are.  That's how we know Jesus is almost here.  Don't you even fucking compare your facts and figures to my irrefutable anecdotal evidence in the form of me feeling less safe than I imagine I would have felt in 1920, were it not more than 50 years prior to my birth.

Heh.  Don't forget the impression of state of the world based nearly entirely on the news "if it bleeds, it leads" coverage.

[Baruch]

Heh.  Don't forget the impression of state of the world based nearly entirely on the news "if it bleeds, it leads" coverage.

There are no robberies, rapes or murders, that is only propaganda from the MSM, who are run from the Fuhrer's bunker in Argentina, because he doesn't like Obama.

Actually I don't believe the media ... I observe the world immediately around me.  Some things are better some things are worse.

[Hydra009]

There are no robberies, rapes or murders, that is only propaganda from the MSM, who are run from the Fuhrer's bunker in Argentina, because he doesn't like Obama.

I probably don't need to clarify, but I will anyways.  I'm well aware that bad stuff is still going on.  No one is arguing that we live in a peaceful utopia, because we don't.  My point is that the situation has steadily gotten better while the public incorrectly perceives it as worse, due in no small part to the mean world effect.

[stromboli]

Don't forget the lead paint thing

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/01/03/how-lead-caused-americas-violent-crime-epidemic/#7e3785b363b2

And the abortion thing

http://freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/

Both apparently were involved in lowering crime.

[josephpalazzo]

Right. The graph is a year old, so don't get too excited JP. The whole thing could go south in an instant. 

Capitalism is at best when it comes to create more wealth, despite of the alarm bells that inequality is growing. People on the Left don't like the  message that the world is improving since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and they will deny your graph (facts) til their noses turn blue.  But free trade and free enterprise will produce a better world than socialist countries. Now if we would get the world to be more democratic (that includes the US, where democracy is going downhill) the world would move forward in the right direction.

[Baruch]

I probably don't need to clarify, but I will anyways.  I'm well aware that bad stuff is still going on.  No one is arguing that we live in a peaceful utopia, because we don't.  My point is that the situation has steadily gotten better while the public incorrectly perceives it as worse, due in no small part to the mean world effect.

Depends on who you talk to.  The White folk who rode high after WW II, are not seeing it that way.  People in Syria for the last couple of years, aren't seeing things get better.  Billionaires who benefit from ZIRP, QE, NIRP and other corporate welfare ... are riding high.  Never had it better.  Whatever Mean-World-Syndrome may mean, try to dismiss the actual backwardation of whole countries and classes of people, by telling them it is all in their head.

And if you know how to find Flint Michigan, you know that lead is coming back in style.

Ideology will only blind the true believer.  When my neighbor is out of a job, it is a recession.  When I am out of a job, it is a depression.  One of my best friends just got layed off yesterday, so I think we are back into recession, no matter what the politicians and their economist lackies say.

[Hydra009]

Depends on who you talk to.

Reality does NOT depend on who you talk to. 

Whatever Mean-World-Syndrome may mean

That's why I give links!  When I use terms people aren't likely to know, I link it so people know what I'm talking about.  In the time you took to wonder what that term means, you could know what it means!

try to dismiss the actual backwardation of whole countries and classes of people, by telling them it is all in their head.

Yes, some countries have fallen on hard times.  Syria comes readily to mind.  But on average the world is improving in lots of ways.  Hunger is down (see OP).  War is down.  Poverty is down (see OP).  Life expectancy is up.  The mortality rate is down from 19.5 in 1950-1955 to 8.3 right now.  That's incredible stuff.  And it's objectively true.  You can't argue against the facts.

[The Atheist]

This is wrong.  The world is getting worse.  You didn't used to have to lock your doors and now you do.  There didn't used to be so many murders and now there are.  That's how we know Jesus is almost here.  Don't you even fucking compare your facts and figures to my irrefutable anecdotal evidence in the form of me feeling less safe than I imagine I would have felt in 1920, were it not more than 50 years prior to my birth.

There are actually less violent crimes per 100 people today than at any time in history. There's more crime, though, because there's more people than at any time in history.

[Baruch]

There are actually less violent crimes per 100 people today than at any time in history. There's more crime, though, because there's more people than at any time in history.

But averages don't mean shit.  If the average person gets enough to eat, because there is one glutton and three other starving souls ... then the starving souls shouldn't be thankful, they need to kill and eat the glutton.

[stromboli]

But averages don't mean shit.  If the average person gets enough to eat, because there is one glutton and three other starving souls ... then the starving souls shouldn't be thankful, they need to kill and eat the glutton.

Philosophy ain't my thing but I believe they call that a conditional fallacy or if/then fallacy. Carry on.