I hate to brag but since I was born in 1951 things have gotten a whole lot better. The world is a much better place to be since I was born. Things have never been so good, d’ya hear what I’m saying.
Listen to what has happened to the average person in the world since when I was born (according to Matt Ridley in his book, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves): the average person now expects to live one-third longer, earns three times as much money (corrected for inflation), eats one-third more calories of food; is less likely to die from war, murder, childbirth, natural disasters such as famine and flooding, a host of diseases including cancer, heart disease, malaria and measles, scurvy and polio. Literacy rates increased. So did the likelihood of owning a “telephone, a flush toilet, a refrigerator and a bicycle.”
Sweet. All since I was born.
I expect right now you’re saying, “Correlation does not mean causation.”
Okay. Maybe I had help. It doesn’t matter really, does it? The world is better off than it has ever been.
Life is sweet, isn’t it?
I think, P.J. O’Rourke may have said it best, “In general, life is better than it has even been. And if you think that in the past there was some golden age of pleasure and plenty to which you would, if you were able, transport yourself, let me say one single word: dentistry.”
Not only is the world better than it has ever been, but I am also better than I have ever been. I rise each day eager to research the biography I am writing, interview people for my monthly newspaper column, and write environmental blog posts. I have never been as busy as I have since I ‘retired.’ At 60, I look better than my father’s photos of him at 40, and I don’t think that I’m unique in this respect. I think I live better, healthier, and happier than my parents did. And, since I mentioned dentistry’s contribution to quality of life, I may not be royalty, but I have just been crowned (back molar, top right)!
By the way:
I’m trying to blog my way to the AARP Orlando@50 conference. This blog post is an entry in their competition to find the official blogger to travel to and cover the event. Find out more about the conference here.
Nullius in Verba 
Nice photo, Norm. I’d agree with all of that – except the third extra calories are not necessarily a good thing; there were fewer overweight people fifty-odd years ago, and obesity is a major health issue in the West.
I thought of that as well, Lexi. However, that we have one-third extra calories available counts toward the good overall, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The extra calories means fewer people (not just a lower percentage) dying of starvation. That I eat one-third more calories than I probably should is by my own fault. I rejoice that those calories are available more than ever before.
The trouble is, most of the extra calories abound in the wrong part of the world where they do harm rather than good, and overconsumption is terribly wasteful.
No completely so. Check out Gapminder.org. Here’s a link to a time-lapse graph of the last quarter century: http://bit.ly/b8rpWg Even the blue bubbles (representing Africa) are falling for malnutrition.
Hi Lexi,
There’s a good post on Watts Up with That? by Willis Eschenbach called I Am So Tired of Malthus. He has a graph showing the the gains in calories the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have made over the past 50 years.
At least some of the calories made it to where they were needed. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports, “the new estimate of the number of people who will suffer chronic hunger this year is 925 million —98 million down from 1.023 billion in 2009. These figures come from The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) report which will be jointly published by FAO and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
Extra calories in the West are a matter of personal responsibility: we are lucky to have the choice. Unfortunately many people choose to eat too much, but that’s still their decision. In contrast, in emerging countries the extra calories are very welcome.
Happy 50! You look pretty well for being such and old guy! (I’m doing my best to catch up with you).
Great to hear from you again, Luis!
Indeed we do eat more than we should in the west. It is a problem even my grandparents would be envious of. Malnutrition need not occur anywhere. That we in the west have malnutrition from too many empty calories is our own individual fault (though it is, in part, coupled with government subsidies). I could use to eat less and better too.
I agree with you, the extra calories in the poorer emerging countries is quite welcome. They now have malnutrition due primarily to poor governance. But, that too is changing. I am optimistic about the next 50 years. I look forward to them.