Global poverty, hunger, and violence are declining. The world is becoming a better place, year by year. So why are so many people afraid of the future and nostalgic about the past rather than optimistic about what’s to come? I’m delighted to discuss that question today with Ronald Bailey.

Ronald is the science correspondent for Reason magazine and Reason.com. He’s the co-author — along with Marian Tupy — of the upcoming book, Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know: And Many Others You Will Find Interesting. He’s also the author of the 2015 book, The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the Twenty-first Century.

 

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  1. Stephen Richter Member
    Stephen Richter
    @StephenRichter

    disappointing that good conservatives are just like liberals in that they just ignore problems with the idea framework they are trying to sell.  Yeah, technology and medicine have improved life considerably.  But what to make of the ever rising cost of homes and rent?  What are the numbers on the percentage of monthly income that a 25 year old pays for rent in manhattan or hoboken in 2020 compared to 1990? 

    Back in the day, the 1980s, a young person living in a town in Northern NJ had plenty of people his own social background and age to get to know. He or she lived in the same town their young life, made friends, their were sports teams to play on and school games to attend. How much of that setting is still the case?  Do sociologists study that sort of thing? 

    The ethnic diversity of schools and towns nowadays. Is that considered progress?  Progress for all involved? Are sociologists even allowed to consider that white people might be better off in communities of their own?  My guess is that when people say things were better back in their day, that they miss the way things used to be, they are thinking of the socially homogeneous communities where people lived and worked.

     

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