Getting Better All the Time Part II

One of the many lessons I've learned the hard way is that online debate is generally fruitless and pointless unless you're debating someone you know. So when I debate online, it's usually with my good friend the confident Harrison Brookie. Harrison is a libertarian with a masters degree in economics (a deadly combination), and he writes almost daily about seeing the world through a libertarian/economic lens on his blog, Bottlenecked.

As a center-right, "what have they done to Conservatism!" Republican, I disagree with Harrison a lot -- our arguments in the past have ranged from the abolishing the minimum wage to legalizing trade of human organs to allowing people to farm and sell endangered species. I admit, sometimes we argue so much that I feel like Harrison and I don't agree on anything.

But we do agree on many things which actually matter -- like the Gospel. So I wanted to take a moment here to outline an idea Harrison mentions regularly on his blog which I always find interesting, insightful, hopeful, and welcomely counter-culture -- an idea with which I whole-heartedly agree:

For most people, things are much better now than they ever were.

The fact is the world is less violent now than it ever was. Trade and economic growth has meant less people live in poverty now than ever. We have better healthcare, education, sanitation, living and working conditions than our grandparents did. We have more time to spend with our families. We are better at fighting disease, malnutrition, and hunger than we ever have been. We are even smarter than we were just a few generations ago.

Human progress should not be idolized, but it should not be ignored either.

Here are some excellent posts by Harrison which touch on this topic:

Ten Positives of the Recession

Historically, Unemployment Is Down and Earnings Are Up!

The Industrial Revolution's Impact on Baby-Making

It Takes Less Work to Pay for a Fridge than it Ever Did

(Ok Harrison didn't write that last article -- but one of Harrison's favorite bloggers, who he constantly points me to, is interviewed in it.)

Despite all my reservations, there is an optimism intrinsic in free-market fundamentalism that I gravitate towards. An optimism that says "Don't listen to the doomsday prophets, you are much better off now than your ancestors ever were -- and there is good reason to believe things will be even better in the future." I think once in a while, especially as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, we could all use a little more of that.