When you think of the current state of the world, you may have negative thoughts about how our future will turn out. It’s not your fault that what you usually read or hear is, for the most part, pretty dismal. Reporters and journalists seem to love covering the scrumptious scandals, the devastating wars, and the natural disasters. Tragedy is the product, and apparently, we’re still buying. And so they’ll tell you about the trees that burn down, not about the trees that grow.
But I want to tell you something different. We are in much better shape than we think. Despite what you have been told, global poverty, illiteracy, and disease rates have all dropped in recent years. Yet not many people know or think about these encouraging statistics. For example, when asked what percentage of the world’s population is living in extreme poverty and how that number had changed over the past 20 years, Americans were way off the mark. Two-thirds thought the percentage had doubled, while 29% thought it had remained more or less the same. According to the World Bank, however, the number has actually halved. How can 95% of the population be so wrong? Maybe it’s the way issues are covered (or not covered) in the media.
