Whatever Liberals Say, Believe the Opposite

To listen to liberals, the world is doomed. Globalization is pushing people further into poverty. War is bringing us to the eve of destruction. Civil rights are being destroyed at every turn. Yada, yada, yada. Let's inject some facts into this liberal nonsense. Income: Worldwide incomes are at their highest levels in history and are rising. Since 1960, more than 1 billion people have pulled themselves out of poverty. The World Bank says "the past two decades have witnessed one of the most rapid reductions in poverty in human history." China, alone has lifted more than 400 million out of poverty in the past 20 years. Other countries, such as Bangladesh, have made substantial strides in poverty reduction by improving health care and education. The rapid globalization of the world economy and industrialization of many formerly agricultural economies has raised incomes for billions of people. Health and education: People are living on average seven years longer than they lived in the 1970s, and the gap between life expectancies in the richest and poorest countries has closed by 10 years since 1960. Childhood mortality rates have steadily declined worldwide. Literacy has slowly risen in developing countries, now reaching 76 percent. Much of the illiteracy in the world is caused by governments that intentionally prevent people from learning. Primary school enrollment has advanced steadily, with more than 8 out of 10 youth now in school. Political and civil rights: Fully one-half of the world's population now lives in countries that have multi-party electoral systems that respect basic human rights - the highest level in history. The breakup of the former Soviet Union in 1991 precipitated a move toward Western system democracies not only within the borders of the former Soviet Union but also within former "client" states. During the past three decades, more than 80 countries in Central Europe, East Asia, Latin America, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa have all notched gains in political and civil rights and more than 30 military dictatorships have been replaced by civilian governments. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alone freed 50-million people. Armed conflict: The number of armed conflicts has declined steadily from about 50 in 1990 to less than 30 today - nearly the lowest levels since the end of World War II. The number of men and women in uniform and total world military spending has eased from cold war peaks. By every measure, we are leading better lives than any other people, at any time, in any place on the globe. As Polly Toynbe of the Guardian puts it, "If the pessimists are right that everything is so awful, then why have we never had it so good?"