This is the first in a series of excerpts from my book “From Poverty to Progress: Understanding Humanity’s Greatest Achievement.” My goal is to promote an awareness and understanding of human material progress.
"Part of the reason we cannot see the existence of progress is because we compare the problems of today to either an idea in our head about how life should be, or to nostalgic memories of how we think life used to be."
In the rest of your book, this is a recurring theme. You summed up my thinking on the current state of American politics more articulately than I could. On the political Right, populists appeal to nostalgic (and false) memories of how great things used to be, while social justice warriors on the Left appeal to a conception of how things "should" be, an idyllic world without tradeoffs.
This is the core problem with American politics and polarization today.
Interesting framing -- progress studies as CBT for society. Many people have a curious dichotomy where they they believe that their own prospects are good but the world is going to hell. In current polls, a large percentage of people are saying that the economy is bad even though unemployment is extremely low. (However, they may understandably be focused on inflation and high house prices.)
It is also entirely possible to be personally pessimistic and gloomy but positive about trends for the society and the world. Julian Simon is a classic example. He's a profound (rational) optimist about the world but suffered depression and even wrote a book, Good Mood, about it. (Based on CBT.)
"Part of the reason we cannot see the existence of progress is because we compare the problems of today to either an idea in our head about how life should be, or to nostalgic memories of how we think life used to be."
In the rest of your book, this is a recurring theme. You summed up my thinking on the current state of American politics more articulately than I could. On the political Right, populists appeal to nostalgic (and false) memories of how great things used to be, while social justice warriors on the Left appeal to a conception of how things "should" be, an idyllic world without tradeoffs.
This is the core problem with American politics and polarization today.
Interesting framing -- progress studies as CBT for society. Many people have a curious dichotomy where they they believe that their own prospects are good but the world is going to hell. In current polls, a large percentage of people are saying that the economy is bad even though unemployment is extremely low. (However, they may understandably be focused on inflation and high house prices.)
It is also entirely possible to be personally pessimistic and gloomy but positive about trends for the society and the world. Julian Simon is a classic example. He's a profound (rational) optimist about the world but suffered depression and even wrote a book, Good Mood, about it. (Based on CBT.)