What a Wonderful Time to be Alive Now

Look what's going on today. We have shooting war in Europe, global pandemic, political upheaval almost everywhere, crashing financial markets, rising costs of energy, the looming food-crisis, empty shelves in shops and supermarkets, inflation and the list goes on and on. But ... 200 years ago, a large gash on your leg was a death sentence.

We are only two years into this century's "Roaring 20s." There is so much chaos in the world today that it's easy to say "life sucks, the world sucks, and everything sucks."

That's right.

But looking at all the facts, I must conclude that I'm totally wrong. So I can correct myself with saying:

That's not true!

The facts show that life is actually very good.

Let me show you what I mean:

• In the year zero (0), you and I (and the large majority of us) would have fallen victim to famine, sickness, war, infection, labor, or an abundance of other adverse conditions.

• From 500 BC to 1900 AD, death reigned supreme. The world's average youth mortality rate, defined as death before age 15, was 46.7%. Additionally, one-quarter of all infants didn't reach their first birthdays.

• For the last 2,400 years, the odds that you might reach your 15th birthday, was actually almost not existing, statistically.

And if you think that's a long time ago, think again.

• Not so long time ago, the global youth mortality rate had nearly been cut in half to 27% (in 1950). In 2017, we hit 4.6%. Somalia, which currently boasts the world's highest youth mortality rate at 14.8%, sits at just 1/3 of the global average from ~100 years earlier.

• In 2022, the death of a child is a tragic occurrence. In 1822, it was a normal part of daily life. We can't comprehend a world where early deaths were so common, yet that was the real world for millennia.

• Static mortality rates for centuries, then a 90% decline in just a few modern generations.

Mortality rates of children over last two millennia.

And that's the mortality of humankind. If anyone is complaining again about the inflation, or the crazy American president, or the vicious Russian President, or the totalitarian regime in China, or even the super mass murderers like Stalin and Hitler, think again. Those people are like butterflies compared with the authorities from the past.

• Do you know that in 1820, the global population was at 1.08 billion people? And do you also know that 964.93 million people lived in extreme poverty? That's about 91.1% of the total world population!

• In 2015, with a global population of 7.35 billion, 733.48 million people lived in extreme poverty.

• The world population increased with 6.3 billion, but extreme poverty reduced with 230 million!

Extreme poverty from 1820.

• As recently as 1981 42% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, that number is 9%. In the last generation, global extreme poverty has dropped by 84%! Many organizations like the UN is working intensely to reduce that percentage dramatically to zero!

And there is something about extreme poor. Take a look at countries like the United States, Europe, Israel, Australia, and through the whole of Africa, where the extreme poor own a cellphone!

In the US and Europe, you can see the extreme poor having an internet connection, food, and shelter. Those living in government housing today have a higher standard of living than the upper class did in the year 1900.

It's difficult to imagine how good we have it because our own life experiences are based on our life-conditions, which are as optimal as it can be. It's difficult to imagine the hardships of history, when we don't experience them! We don't feel them. And there is a reason for it, of course. All the thousands of years of war, sickness, and hardship have been reduced to paragraphs in a book, on TV, video and documentaries.

The Plague of Justinian wiped out 40% of Constantinople's population in four months. The Russian Plague killed 33% of Moscow's population in a single season, and 75% of the remaining populace fled.

The COVID-19 was/is a pandemic, no doubt. But can you imagine a world with 4 million New York City deaths in just four months? Where millions of others flee, fearing for their lives? That didn't happen with COVID-19, but it did happen everywhere in the (even recent) past.

And if you consider why there is so much improvement (compared with the last), look the following list, because all of them helped to reduce the mortality rate (90%) to what it is now:

• The printing press allowed our knowledge to conquer death.

• Penicillin allowed our bodies to conquer infection.

• Fertilizers allowed our farms to conquer famine.

• Steam engines allowed our ships to conquer windless seas.

• Airplanes allowed us to conquer gravity and distant travel.

• Phones allowed us to conquer long-distance communication.

• Computers allowed us to conquer the spatial limitations of data storage.

• Over time, these little miracles, these little breakthroughs, they compounded. Each generation built from the shoulders of their predecessors, beginning life on third base thanks to a triple hit by the generation before.

And innovation has accelerated as a result.

And think about this:

200 years ago, a large gash on your leg was a death sentence