The World Is Getting Better

We may not always see it, but on every measure of education, poverty, and health, the world conditions have been improving. You're even less likely to get hit by lightning.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Gratitude Diaries, a production of My Heart Radio. Hi.
I'm Janice Kaplan. Thanks for joining me for more practical
ideas on how to be happier. Today's tip in this
week before New Year's take comfort in knowing that the
world is getting better all the time. I was listening

(00:26):
to a podcast the other day from philanthropist and Microsoft
co founder Bill Gates on whether people can really change?
Along with his co host Rashida Jones, they talked about
personal change as well as making change in the world.
Gates is mostly interested in the change in the world category,
and he doesn't just talk about it. Both personally and

(00:49):
through his foundation, he has given billions of dollars to
improving global health and gender equality. He warned about the
potential for a pandemic years ago, but instead of saying
I told you so when it happened, he has provided
more than a hundred million dollars toward developing the current
COVID nineteen vaccines. Beyond his smarts and his generosity, what

(01:13):
strikes me most about Bill Gates is his optimism. He
sees the world as moving in a positive direction. Sure,
we have setbacks, and progress is sometimes more of a
zigzag than a straight line. But in general things are
getting better, he suggests, looking at the world from two
hundred years ago, which isn't really such a long time.

(01:36):
Back then, there was no electricity, one third of all
children in the world died before the age of five,
and communication was pretty minimal. Between innovations and what he
calls people's basic humanity, we have made the globe healthier, safer,
and somewhat more equitable. The good news goes well beyond that,

(01:59):
but most us just aren't aware of it. We hear
all the negative headlines. One survey showed that most Americans
believe global poverty is on the rise, when in fact
the exact opposite is the case. According to economists at
Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, extreme poverty

(02:20):
has decreased by eighty percent in the last fifty years.
Another person who is trying to make us see how
the world is getting better is Harvard psychologist, linguist, and
popular science writer Stephen Pinker. In his book Enlightenment Now,
he offers dozens of charts showing the upward swing of

(02:41):
human progress in education, prosperity, and health. As he puts
it none of us are as happy as we ought
to be, given how amazing our world has become. In
Pinker's view, the Enlightenment values of reason, science, and humanism
moved us in the right direction and continue to do so.

(03:03):
Not surprisingly, Bill Gates is a huge fan of Steve
Pinker and has called Enlightenment Now one of his favorite books.
The book can be a tough slog, which is why
I was amused by the points from the book that
Gates pulled out to highlight. If you're looking for reasons
to be grateful and optimistic that the world is getting better,
try these. First, your thirty seven times less likely to

(03:27):
be hit by a bolt of lightning than you once were.
It's not that there are fewer storms, but we have
better weather predictions and better understanding of safety. Second, time
spent doing laundry has dropped from eleven and a half
hours a week a hundred years ago to one and
a half hours now. That may not sound like a

(03:50):
big deal, but the invention of the washing machine changed
life for a lot of people, mostly women. That extra
ten hours a week allows women to do things that
they can enjoy or that really matter, or to advance
their careers. Third, people are getting smarter. I Q may

(04:11):
not be a perfect measure of intelligence, but the global
i Q score is rising three points every decade. The
reason is that kids brains are developing more fully because
of better nutrition and a cleaner environment. We're also getting
better at analytic and abstract thinking. The list of advantages

(04:32):
and progress go on and on, some serious, some fun.
A lot of people objected to Pinker's book. Some just
don't believe in science and reason, which I think is
too bad. Others pointed out that even if global conditions
have gotten better, there is still individual pain and suffering,
and of course that is true. But I am encouraged

(04:55):
by Pinker's view that we're moving in the right direction.
As he writes, we will never have a perfect world,
and it would be dangerous to seek one, but there
is no limit to the betterments we can attain if
we continue to apply knowledge to enhance human flourishing. So
as we move toward a new year, let's be grateful

(05:16):
for what we have attained in the greater scope of things. Yes,
we've had a terrible pandemic, but science has also brought
us a vaccine, or several vaccines. We have lights and computers,
and hope we have people like Bill Gates who care
about ending global illness and poverty and are putting their
vast fortunes to making the world better. We can be

(05:38):
grateful for washing machines and increased intelligence and the reduced
risk of being hit by lightning. We can always choose
to see the world from many different viewpoints, and today
I hope you'll choose to be grateful for all the
positive achievements we've made and allow yourself a little optimism
but the year and years ahead. Thanks for joining me.

(06:02):
I'll be back with more ideas on how to bring
joy and gratitude to your New Year's Eve. Have a
great day. The Gratitude Diaries is a production of I
heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your favorite shows.