Hello everyone, welcome to a new episode of clutterless.

Today’s episode is a bit different.

In the past, we have talked about various critical issues and problems like net-zero, climate
change etc. BUT in today’s episode we will be talking about– why the current time is the best
time to live in, in the entire human history.

Well, well, we know we are still in the middle of the pandemic and also that there are so many
bad news of crime and war that we hear daily on the news, then how can we say that this is the
best age to live huh? Well, believe us when we say that we have data for that !
In this episode we will systematically talk about various parameters and show you through data
that they are getting better!
In the end, we will also examine why is there a common perception that the world is getting
worse, even when the data shows otherwise. This episode is all about hope and tells you that
things are better than you think! Some part of this episode are inspired by book called
factfulness by Hans Rosling.

Before we begin, a general note- If you only view the current numbers, they will not make any
sense. The point is, that you should benchmark the current statistics about any issue to the past
statistics about the same issue. This way you can understand how much progress the world has
made from the past. To appreciate our current situation, one must understand where we are
coming from. We are not arguing that everything is perfect, but rather we are saying that things
are getting better. That we are better off what we were in the past.

So now, Let's talk about life expectancy first. At the start of the 19th century, the average life
expectancy around the world was just 29 years. This means that on an average each person
lived just 29 years. In 1950 it was about 46 years. Today, the average life expectancy is 72
years. It is because of the new cutting edge medical technology, medicines and less violence.
Even in a war torn country like Afghanistan, life expectancy is 64.8 years. That means that
today’s Afghanistan is also better than most of the world in 1950!

Let's talk about freedom next, We all know that 18 and 19th century say heavy colonization of
Africa, Asia and Americas by the europe.Although Europe represents only about 8 percent of
the planet's landmass, from 1492 to 1914, Europeans conquered or colonized more than 80
percent of the entire world. Post 1950 this scenario started changing. In 1960, a lot of african
countries gained independence. Similarly India, pakistan gained independence in 1947. In 1971
Bangladesh got liberated from pakistan. Today most of the world is free. As you can see, more
and more countries are becoming independent. This means these countries get to make their
own policies for the well being of their citizens and they get to use their resources rather than
Europeans exploiting it. This means that they will not have to fight unnecessary wars on the
behalf of Europeans. Most of all, these countries get to choose their government. You see, life
in these countries is getting better and better.
Now we will talk about poverty, at the start of 19th century, 85% of the world population
Lived under poverty. Today that figure is less than 9%. It is an astonishing human achievement
to bring down poverty rates so low. Less people have to suffer because of poverty.

Now, As we script this episode, the war between Russia-Ukraine is in its 3rd month, horrific
images are coming out of war zones of how inhumane war can be. The Syrian civil war has
already claimed several lives in the past decade. BUT still, you’d be surprised to know that wars
were much much more frequent in human history then they are now.
You all have heard about the two world wars which claimed millions of lives. An estimated
50,000,000 people died in world war 2 alone.
In 1942, 2013 people per million people died in war. This figure was just 12 in 2016.
While there have been wars in recent times, they have been fewer in number, localized
and low scale.

Child mortality is another metric used to measure the quality of life. It basically means
how many children die before they turn 5 year old. It tells us a lot about healthcare and
society because infants are very delicate and they need to be provided with proper care.
In 1950, child mortality was 15%. I,e. out of every 100 babies born, 15 died. The
constant human efforts have made it possible to bring down this mortality rate to 3% by
2016 globally. Now even this 3% is a lot fo human life lost, and we do not intent to
downplay the pain and suffering of the parents who lost their kids in that 3% figure. But
our only point is that imagine the amount of human suffering that we have been able to
reduce over just few decades. Hopefully the number will sink even further in the future.

Now coming to women empowerment, there is no doubt that patriarchy still exists and that we
need to eliminate it. But things were much worse a century ago. A century ago, women weren’t
even allowed to vote, even in the most western society. Today there is higher awareness about
women rights in the world than at any other point in history. In 1893 only one country allowed
females to vote, today that figure is 193. In 1970 only 65% of the eligible girls were enrolled in
primary education, today that figure is 90%. This figure revolves around 80% for low income
countries in Africa too. Ideally of course every girl should go to school and this figure should be
100% and maybe hopefully we will get there in future, but we want you to notice the progress till
now. We are going in the right direction and hopefully one day we can completely eliminate
gender biases and suffering because of gender.

About literacy, Today 86% of the adult population is literate in some sense, In 1800 it was just
10%,
In 1980 only 58% of the people had access to water from protected sources, today 88% of the
world population does have that luxury.

In 1980 only 22% of the population had one of more vaccination today 88% of the population
has access to vaccines. A lot of this has been made possible because of the low cost vaccines
coming out of India. Also please note that we have been able to develop covid vaccines in
record time of less than 2 years. Usually this process takes 10-20 year but the technology
advancement made it possible for humans to achieve their remarkable fate in just less than 2
years.

In the previous century it was predicted that the world will collapse because population growth
will happen at a much faster rate then compared to growth in agriculture. But then humans were
able to develop advanced technology and fertilizers. Which resulted in increasing the crop yield
from 1.4 thousand KG per hectare in 1961 to 4 KG per hectare in 2014. You see, humans have
capability to achieve anything given the problem is a life or death problem.

Now, for a moment forget about all the statistics and look around you. What do you see, maybe
a air-conditioner, laptop, mobile phone etc etc. Can you imagine your life without these devices?
Most probability NO, you can’t even imagine your life without these amenities. Please realize
that these amenities are fairly new in the human history and did not even exist until a few
centuries back. That is how life is getting better.

So then, the question arises, If the world is getting better as we

have just shown, why is it the case that most people believe the opposite. Go around and ask
people if they think that the world is getting better, most of them will either say that the world is
getting worse OR they will under predict the rate of development. So why is it so?

Well, we can think of a few reasons-

Firstly, Media and free press shows and focuses more on conflict and bad news. We are not
blaming them for doing it, ofcourse it is their job. But what you as viewer of news need to realize
is that good things don’t get reported. It is only when something bad happens, the media reports
it. Bad news is selectively handpicked to run on your television screen, which creates the
illusion that the world is getting worse. Media won’t ever report a violeceless peaceful society,
because there is nothing to show in that society. They have to cover the conflict ridden zones,
that is their job. That is their JOB.

Secondly, technological advancement and globalization has made it possible for the news and
imagery to come out from one part of the world and spread to others. It is the first time in human
history that we are seeing high quality, coloured graphic imagery of violence coming out of
conflict ridden areas. The Internet has made it possible for anyone to post imagery from war
ridden areas. In the earlier time, despite the fact that the wars and other bad news were higher,
they usually got unreported or the spread of news was confined to a very selected region. Now,
the entire world sees the conflict. While this is a good thing since people have a voice, the
fallout effect is that people are now more prone and exposed to negative news.

Thirdly, People often tend to romanticize and censor History. Mostly people study about the
poets, astonishing architecture etc. Wars, conflict and their intensity are often missed out on.
Older people also have nostalgia, which makes them sing praises of their olden times, even if
the child mortality was higher back then. Similarly, since we are living through this time, we see
every issue in detail. When we look back at history, we tend to get a blurry image because it is
not possible to view human history in detail, we often tend to miss out on negative aspects in
history.

So, what do we get out of talking that the world is getting better? Even if we prove it, what will
we achieve?
The only point is to make people hopeful about the future, to tell them that the world is a good
place to be. Our generation is getting the best of the facilities, the best opportunities, this also
leaves us at a place of responsibility to make world even better for our future generations. We
should stop blaming our luck and realize how lucky we are. We have some serious problems
like climate change which can threaten our very existence. But we as a society needs to come
together and tackle them and make this world a better place.

With this we conclude out today’s episode. We hope you liked today’s episode and that you
learned something new out of it. Let us know of any potential topics that you would like us to
cover. Or just simply share your views with us.

For any suggestion and feedback please mail us clutterless.podcast@gmail.com

Thank you for your time !!