Are Things Bad? Or Getting Better? Or Both?
A chorus of voices is dissecting the shortcomings of so-called “late-stage capitalism” these days. Like Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf (The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism). Or billionaire Ray Dalio (Why and How Capitalism Needs to be Reformed).?
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These critiques reflect a pervasive anxiety about and dissatisfaction with the state of our economy that doesn’t fully square with reality. As a recent column in The Economist put it, “Americans are worried. Nearly four-fifths tell pollsters that their children will be worse off than they are, the most since… 1990. Yet the anxiety obscures a stunning success story – one of enduring but underappreciated outperformance.”?
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Reading them and others, I found myself searching for some counterweight to the drumbeat of negative narratives about a world in which market capitalism is the dominant socioeconomic paradigm. I found it in a column written for The New Yorker by Joshua Rothman titled, “Are Things Getting Better or Worse?” ??
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Rothman builds on an observation by Harvard professor Steven Pinker that “…despite our dark imaginings life has been getting better in pretty much every way.”???
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“Most historical and statistical evidence shows that life used to be shorter, sicker, poorer, more dangerous, and less free,” Rothman writes. Yet while “progress is real, meaningful and widespread, Pinker finds that a majority of people in 14 countries believe precisely the opposite – particularly in the United States – which raises the possibility that ingratitude [may be] enough to destroy a civilization.”?
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What’s going on???
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Most depictions of the world are either too optimistic or too pessimistic, Rothman suggests. “Does saying ‘things are improving’ imply that everything is fine, and we should all relax and not worry?” he asks, citing Hans Rosling’s Factfulness: Ten Reasons Why We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. “No, not at all. Is it helpful to choose between bad and improving? Definitely not. It’s both. It’s both bad and better.”?
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“Better, and bad, at the same time... That is how we must think about the current state of the world.”???
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After decades promoting finance as a "force for good,” my personal preference is to focus on the “better.”?
Wealth Strategist
1 年As Michael J Fox says: GRATITUDE makes Optimism sustainable.
Author of The Healthy Deviant | Founder, Healthy Deviant U I help people master the art of being healthy in an unhealthy world.
1 年Thoughtful inquiry, John. In my view, a big part of whether one thinks things are "bad and getting worse" or "bad and getting better" depends a lot on what one considers to be sustainable/regenerative progress (versus residual, lagging-indicator "gains" from rampant natural-resource exploitation, land theft, slavery, urban sprawl, chronic body-mind breakdown, etc.). It also depends on what metrics one considers essential to human and systems-level integrity, dignity, and -- dare I say it? -- flourishing. Last time I read Pinker's work (and to be fair, it has been a while), I was struck by how much he counted increased fiscal wealth, reduced starvation, and greater access to modern healthcare as big wins, but didn't consider how much less access most people had to land or water to grow/gather their own healthy foods, rates of chronic illness, and so on. In many cases it seemed like he was counting the short-term wins without counting the longterm costs or systems-level losses/wastes by which those wins were achieved. Which reminds me, here's that essay I told you about on the plane ... https://experiencelife.lifetime.life/article/the-better-good-life-an-essay-on-personal-sustainability