To quote the great Sting:

"When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around."

Yeah, I guess what I’m doing is what I do

It's not.

We like to think it is - And certainly bad things are happening, and will continue to happen. Hell it might even get worse.

However, historically speaking - we're a hell of a lot better off today then we were before. Want specific examples?

How much of the world is literate? In 1800 the percentage of the world population that could read was about 15% Now it's closer to 85%. In fact, more people in the world are being educated than ever before. Not just primary/lower secondary, but upper secondary and post secondary. People can use autodidacticism to teach themselves - thanks to the prevalence of a vast, world spanning information network.

In the 1800s over 40% of children worldwide died before the age of 5. Today that number is closer to 5%

The vast majority of the world use to live under a monarchy, autocracy, or a colony of one of those. Now the majority of people live in a democracy. Not sure if that's much of an improvement... but still.

Or let's talk about poverty? In the 1820s 94% of the planet was living in poverty - 84% in EXTREME poverty. Today? That number is closer to 15% for the former and 10% for the latter.

Our population has exploded because we're doing so well. Just a couple hundred years ago there were 1 billion people on the planet. Global life expectancy has DOUBLED over the last hundred years alone.

My point is... The world always looks like it's going to shit. What you can do is re-frame your point of view.

• sources [ourworldindata.org]