In most regards, life has never been better for the average person. Amid steadily increasing negativity about the world’s problems (some of it warranted), we could all use a bit of a perspective on humanity’s astounding progress.
The prevailing sentiment in America seems to be that everything has gotten worse in recent years. A recent op-ed in Scientific American described 2024 as a “dumpster fire of a historical moment” and a “terrible time in humanity.” Presidential candidates capitalize on existential dread and political extremists claim that by “every objective standard, the U.S. is weaker in 2024 than it was in 1984.”
Several major problems exist in the U.S. today, many of which will only get worse. Inflation and unaffordable housing financially strain millions of Americans. Climate change exacerbates global humanitarian disasters. Income inequality is growing. Significant political instability troubles our government. A hyperpartisan Supreme Court has made historically bad decisions on abortion and executive privilege. Geopolitical tensions are escalating. The list goes on.
That being said, the language used by the authors of the op-ed and others lacks duly needed perspective. By the vast majority of metrics, Americans have it better now than at any other time in history.
In just the last century, median incomes — adjusted for inflation — are near all-time highs (more than 25% higher than they were just 30 years ago). Poverty rates are near all-time lows. Modern medicine has increased life expectancy by more than 20 years between 1924 and 2020, and scientists are still working diligently to improve lives. Diseases that once decimated populations are now manageable or nearly eradicated thanks to vaccines and innovative treatments. Crime rates have plunged. Activism has made enormous progress in advancing equal rights.
Of course, humanity’s past stretches even further back than the past century. Thousands of years ago, survival depended on hunting, gathering and primitive farming. Homes were basic structures made from natural materials. Daily life was focused on food acquisition. There was limited technology and medicine, leading to high infant mortality and drastically shorter lifespans. Cultural and religious beliefs played a central role in guiding societal norms and practices. Our lives today are, relatively speaking, cushy.
The idea that some things have indeed gotten worse and the idea that the world is still generally better than it used to be are not mutually exclusive. Perhaps it is the fact that our brain is wired to prioritize negative information while disregarding positives that prevents us from reasoning this out.
Technology is a fairly good microcosm of my point. While many detractors have fatalized technological progress, it seems like, during these discussions, no one points to how it has made our lives better. GPS and instant messaging have saved us innumerable amounts of time. Tech has played a part in bettering outcomes for those with disabilities. The internet has democratized learning.
In 1900, the average family spent 60 hours a week completing household chores. Today, it spends less than 19 hours, largely due to advancements in home technology. Work days have become markedly shorter too. As a result, we have more time for leisure and to spend with family.
Despite the enormous amount of progress, nearly six in 10 Americans still say life was better for people like them 50 years ago. Looking to the future, 66% of Americans believe that the U.S. economy will be weaker in 2050 than today (experts say this is unlikely to hold true).
This pessimism can partly be attributed to media outlets resorting to “doomer-ist” coverage to retain audiences. A study from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found that media sentiment on the economy has become strikingly more negative in recent decades. The trend accelerated even further in the late 2010s. Of course, you would expect the complete opposite given that economic conditions have actually improved.
A good portion of the blame also goes to social media platforms. Algorithms on popular social media websites routinely prefer negative content. Cynicism, bad news and controversial content spreads much faster than positive content because it is more likely to drive engagement and keep users’ attention for as long as possible. Again, this plays into our innate biases.
This perpetual, cynical overload of coverage of current events is wreaking havoc on Americans’ mental health. Americans have rapidly become less happy relative to other countries. Anxiety has skyrocketed amid social media and the traditional media’s increasingly gloomy perspective. Members of Generation Z are unsurprisingly more likely to fall victim to news-driven anxiety given that they spend hours each day on social media.
There is progress still to be made. We shouldn’t be complacent. There are indeed some things that have gotten worse in recent years, but the current levels of cynicism, despair and doom are not sustainable or healthy. What we most need is a dose of optimistic realism.
It is much likelier than not that the future on the whole will be a better place than the past. Things often get worse before they can get better, and a generation that dwells too much on what is supposedly unchangeable and hopeless will not be poised to change it. Making sure the future is better than the past is reliant on first believing that it will be better.
Hayden Buckfire is an Opinion Columnist who writes about American politics and culture. He can be reached at haybuck@umich.edu
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