Our very own DTB posted this in the other forum. I think it's appropriate here as well. :clap:
2004: The Good News
Thursday, December 30, 2004
By Radley Balko
Every year as we approach the end of December, major media outlets
compile lists of the year?s top stories.
Television news stations compile poignant montages of the past 12
months. Inevitably, these images are tragic?images of war, crime and
natural disaster set to pensive music, only occasionally interrupted
by shots of the team that won the Super Bowl, the World Series, or
every four years, pictures from the Olympics.
That?s to be expected, of course. No news, as they say, is good news.
Good news also tends to happen gradually, which makes it less
conspicuous. Bad news happens in clumps. It makes itself known. In
just a few hours, a hurricane or an earthquake can wipe out thousands
of homes and businesses. The prosperity, wealth and rise in standard
of living that created those homes and businesses took place over
decades, if not hundreds of years.
No one reports a new subdivision going up. Everyone?s on the scene
when a tornado takes one down.
At the end of the year, it?s easy to get so caught up with what?s
going on in Fallujah, the calamitous tsunamis that hit South Asia, or
the threat of terrorism, that we overlook the overwhelmingly positive
but subtler, more gradual trends lurking beneath the headlines.
Here then, is the good news
?America?s kids are all right. Juvenile violent crime (search) has
fallen every year ? and nearly halved ? since 1995. The percentage of
high school students who carry weapons to school is at a 10-year low.
There were 14 homicides on school campuses in 2002-03, down from 34
10 years earlier. Teen birthrates (search) are at a 20-year low, and
high school dropout rates are at a 35-year low.
?America is healthier. Life expectancy in the U.S. (search) is at an
all-time high among men and women, black and white. People at every
age can expect to live longer than anyone at their age in U.S.
history. Heart disease, cardiovascular disease and stroke have fallen
dramatically in the last 15 years. Incidence of, and deaths from,
cancer have dropped every year since 1990.
?America is cleaner. Concentration levels of every major air
pollutant have dropped dramatically since 1970, even as we drive
more, consume more, and produce more. According to data analyzed by
the Pacific Research Institute (search), U.S. water has been getting
steadily cleaner for the last 20 years.
?The world is less violent. In his book, "A History of Force," the
historian James L. Payne (search) argues that when you adjust for
population increases, over the course of history, the average citizen
of the world has grown less likely to die a violent death caused by
government, war or his fellow man. War, murder, genocide, sacrificial
killing, rioting ? all have tapered off over time.
The trend continues even into recent years. According to the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (search), there were
just 19 major armed conflicts in 2003, down from 44 in 1995. Existing
wars seem to be less violent, too. According to the Human Security
Report (search), published by the University of British Columbia,
700,000 people died in battle in 1951. By the 1990s, the number had
fallen to 40,000-100,000. In 2002, it was just 15,000. This, as the
world?s population increased.
?The world is freer. According to the United Nations, as of 2002, 70
percent of the world?s nations were holding multi-party elections.
Fifty-eight percent of the world?s population lived under a fully
democratic system of governance. Both of these figures are at their
highest points in human history.
The Freedom House (search) think tank gave 89 countries containing 46
percent of the world?s population a ranking of ?free? in the 2003
edition of its annual Freedom of the World report (search). Both
figures are at their highest in the 30-year history of the survey.
Freedom House also reports that countries moving toward more freedom
have outpaced countries moving away from freedom by three to one.
?The world is less poor. Yale University?s David Dollar has pointed
out that since 1980, the total number of people living on less than
$1 per day has actually fallen by 200 million, despite the fact that
the world?s population increased by 1.8 billion. It?s the first time
in recorded history that that has happened. The UN?s 2004 Human
Development Report (search) notes that real per capita incomes in the
developing world have more than doubled since 1975. In some provinces
in China, incomes are doubling every few months.
?The world is healthier. Between 1960 and 2000, life expectancy in
developing countries increased from 46 to 63 years. Mortality rates
of children under five are half of what they were forty years ago.
?The world is getting cleaner. Most economists now endorse the
concept of a ?green ceiling,? (search) which means that although the
transition from a developing economy to a developed one requires some
environmental exploitation, there is a point at which a country
becomes wealthy enough that its citizens will begin to demand
environmental protection.
The key is to get each country to that point as quickly as possible.
And as noted earlier, that?s exactly what?s happening. The good news
is, the ?green ceiling? is getting lower every day. Right now, it
stands at about $5,000 per capita GDP, but the World Bank (search)
reported in 1997 that poor countries begin turning the corner on
water pollution, for example, at as low as $500 per capita.
So take heart. As we head into a new year, both the U.S. and the
world are growing safer, healthier, and less violent. Most of the
world is getting freer. It may not seem like it, given the images
we?re seeing on the news, but man on the whole is making himself
better.
2004: The Good News
Thursday, December 30, 2004
By Radley Balko
Every year as we approach the end of December, major media outlets
compile lists of the year?s top stories.
Television news stations compile poignant montages of the past 12
months. Inevitably, these images are tragic?images of war, crime and
natural disaster set to pensive music, only occasionally interrupted
by shots of the team that won the Super Bowl, the World Series, or
every four years, pictures from the Olympics.
That?s to be expected, of course. No news, as they say, is good news.
Good news also tends to happen gradually, which makes it less
conspicuous. Bad news happens in clumps. It makes itself known. In
just a few hours, a hurricane or an earthquake can wipe out thousands
of homes and businesses. The prosperity, wealth and rise in standard
of living that created those homes and businesses took place over
decades, if not hundreds of years.
No one reports a new subdivision going up. Everyone?s on the scene
when a tornado takes one down.
At the end of the year, it?s easy to get so caught up with what?s
going on in Fallujah, the calamitous tsunamis that hit South Asia, or
the threat of terrorism, that we overlook the overwhelmingly positive
but subtler, more gradual trends lurking beneath the headlines.
Here then, is the good news
?America?s kids are all right. Juvenile violent crime (search) has
fallen every year ? and nearly halved ? since 1995. The percentage of
high school students who carry weapons to school is at a 10-year low.
There were 14 homicides on school campuses in 2002-03, down from 34
10 years earlier. Teen birthrates (search) are at a 20-year low, and
high school dropout rates are at a 35-year low.
?America is healthier. Life expectancy in the U.S. (search) is at an
all-time high among men and women, black and white. People at every
age can expect to live longer than anyone at their age in U.S.
history. Heart disease, cardiovascular disease and stroke have fallen
dramatically in the last 15 years. Incidence of, and deaths from,
cancer have dropped every year since 1990.
?America is cleaner. Concentration levels of every major air
pollutant have dropped dramatically since 1970, even as we drive
more, consume more, and produce more. According to data analyzed by
the Pacific Research Institute (search), U.S. water has been getting
steadily cleaner for the last 20 years.
?The world is less violent. In his book, "A History of Force," the
historian James L. Payne (search) argues that when you adjust for
population increases, over the course of history, the average citizen
of the world has grown less likely to die a violent death caused by
government, war or his fellow man. War, murder, genocide, sacrificial
killing, rioting ? all have tapered off over time.
The trend continues even into recent years. According to the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (search), there were
just 19 major armed conflicts in 2003, down from 44 in 1995. Existing
wars seem to be less violent, too. According to the Human Security
Report (search), published by the University of British Columbia,
700,000 people died in battle in 1951. By the 1990s, the number had
fallen to 40,000-100,000. In 2002, it was just 15,000. This, as the
world?s population increased.
?The world is freer. According to the United Nations, as of 2002, 70
percent of the world?s nations were holding multi-party elections.
Fifty-eight percent of the world?s population lived under a fully
democratic system of governance. Both of these figures are at their
highest points in human history.
The Freedom House (search) think tank gave 89 countries containing 46
percent of the world?s population a ranking of ?free? in the 2003
edition of its annual Freedom of the World report (search). Both
figures are at their highest in the 30-year history of the survey.
Freedom House also reports that countries moving toward more freedom
have outpaced countries moving away from freedom by three to one.
?The world is less poor. Yale University?s David Dollar has pointed
out that since 1980, the total number of people living on less than
$1 per day has actually fallen by 200 million, despite the fact that
the world?s population increased by 1.8 billion. It?s the first time
in recorded history that that has happened. The UN?s 2004 Human
Development Report (search) notes that real per capita incomes in the
developing world have more than doubled since 1975. In some provinces
in China, incomes are doubling every few months.
?The world is healthier. Between 1960 and 2000, life expectancy in
developing countries increased from 46 to 63 years. Mortality rates
of children under five are half of what they were forty years ago.
?The world is getting cleaner. Most economists now endorse the
concept of a ?green ceiling,? (search) which means that although the
transition from a developing economy to a developed one requires some
environmental exploitation, there is a point at which a country
becomes wealthy enough that its citizens will begin to demand
environmental protection.
The key is to get each country to that point as quickly as possible.
And as noted earlier, that?s exactly what?s happening. The good news
is, the ?green ceiling? is getting lower every day. Right now, it
stands at about $5,000 per capita GDP, but the World Bank (search)
reported in 1997 that poor countries begin turning the corner on
water pollution, for example, at as low as $500 per capita.
So take heart. As we head into a new year, both the U.S. and the
world are growing safer, healthier, and less violent. Most of the
world is getting freer. It may not seem like it, given the images
we?re seeing on the news, but man on the whole is making himself
better.
