When I was a kid, the Great Revolution in China killed millions.
When my dad was a kid, Hitler killed millions and so did Stalin.
When his dad was a kid the Spanish flu killed millions.
My son is a kid and even though the Iraq War has gone on for longer than any other war in US history, about 1,000 American's have died and 100,000 Iraqis have as well.
When I was a kid, we were told that margarine was good and butter was bad.
When my dad was a kid, smoking was recommended by doctors.
When his dad was a kid, doctors didn't routinely wash their hands between surgeries.
My son is a kid, and he has more access to healthy food, a healthy lifestyle and medical care that would have been unimaginable to all of his forebears.
When I was a kid, none of us drove with seatbelts.
When my dad was a kid, asbestos rained down from almost every industrial ceiling.
When his dad was a kid, an industrial accident killed 10 to 100 times more people than it ever could today.
My son is a kid and the roads are infinitely safer, as are the buildings and workplaces.
When I was a kid, the world was in turmoil, hot and cold wars raged, a US president was in unprecedented scandal, millions were dying in Africa and Cambodia and the threat of nuclear annihilation was omnipresent.
When my dad was a kid, the world shook from a World War that claimed millions upon millions of lives, nearly wiped out the Jewish people and saw mankind develop a weapon of unspeakable hardship. And millions were dying in Africa and China and other places.
When his dad was a kid, the first World War nearly destroyed western Europe a flu killed more people than currently live in in the entire Pacific Northwest and most people on the planet lived a kind of slave-like existence.
My son is a kid and he lives in a world of unparalleled peace, unparalleled health, unparalleled freedom and unparalleled global opportunity.
Things are most assuredly getting better. We don't see it, we don't feel it. But it is there. From 1966, to now, my current lifespan, we have seen the end of the cold war, a black president, a massive shift from rural poor to urban wealthy and more. From 1941 to now, my dad's lifespan, we ended Jim Crow, we almost cured cancer, we ended global fascism and more.
From 1900, my grandfathers birth, to now we have reduced violence, pestilence, disease, hunger and oppression to stunning affect.
Gregg Easterbrook's new book "It's Better than it Looks: Reasons for Hope in the Age of Fear" shows this in great detail. We live longer, freer, healthier and with more choice, more diversity and more care and understanding then ever before.
