The size of the country's population. In the chart below, the poorer countries are shown on the left, the richer countries are shown on the right, the higher the health level of the country, the lower the health of the country.

Note that on this map, we can't clearly divide all the countries into two groups, and the world is not divided into two. All the countries are spread across the map, from the poorest and least healthy countries in the lower left corner to the richest and healthiest countries in the upper right corner. And most countries are distributed in the middle.

The following picture is very exciting.

The trajectory of a series of bubble movements shows how the health and wealth of Sweden has progressed since 1800. What a step forward! I have also marked important years in Sweden's history, corresponding to countries that had a decent level in 2017.

1800 to order the state of health and wealth in Sweden



Source: World Bank[1], IMF[1], IHME[1], UN-Pop[1]& Gapminder[1,2,3,4] based on Maddison[1,2]

1948 was an important year, a few years after the end of the Second World War, and that was the year Sweden won the medal table at the Winter Olympics, and that was the year I was born. In 1948, Sweden had the same level of wealth and health as Egypt is today. In other words, it is the third level of income level. In the 50s of the 20th century, living conditions in Sweden were similar to those in Egypt or other countries with a third income level today. In this standard of living, open sewers are still everywhere, and every now and then children drown in ponds near their homes. People living in the third level still have to work very hard and can't take care of their children. The government has yet to legislate to build a fence around the pond.

Throughout my life, Sweden has been improving. From the 50s to the 60s of the 20th century, Sweden progressed as much as it did from today's Egypt to the level of today's Malaysia. By 1975, when Anna and Ola were born, Sweden, like Malaysia today, had already begun to enter the fourth income level.

So let's go back in history, when my mother was born, it was 1921, and the standard of living in Sweden was like Zambia today, which was at the second level of the income level.

My grandmother was of the Basotho ethnic group. She was born in 1891, at a time when living standards in Sweden were the same as Lesotho in southeastern Africa today. That's a standard of living between the first and second levels, almost living in extreme poverty. Throughout her life, my grandmother had to wash all the clothes of the family of nine by hand. As my grandmother grew older, she witnessed firsthand the miracle of Sweden's progress. Her own standard of living, as well as the average standard of living in the entire Swedish state, went to the third level. In her later years, she already had a running water pipe in her home and a toilet in her basement. And her childhood was completely unselfish

Both grandparents knew some words and could read numeracy, but none of them received enough education to read. They don't read children's books to me, and they don't write letters. None of them had more than four years of schooling. Sweden, in the time of my grandparents, had not yet reached the second level, which is the average level of education in present-day India.

My great-grandmother was born in 1863, at a time when the average income in Sweden, as in Afghanistan today, was in the first tier. The vast majority of people live in extreme poverty. My great-grandmother would always tell her daughter, my maternal grandmother, how cold the mud floor was in the house in winter. But today, even people living in the first income class live longer than the Swedes in 1863. This is because some basic modern facilities have reached everyone and significantly improved their quality of life. For example, they have plastic bags for things, plastic buckets for water, and soap to kill bacteria. Most of their children have been vaccinated. People living in the first tier today can live an average of 30 years longer than the Swedes living in the first tier in 1800. So even for people who also live in the first tier, the quality of life is much better than it was in 1800.

Although I don't know what country you live in, I'm sure your own countries have all experienced this shocking progress. I can confidently tell you this because life expectancy has increased significantly in all countries over the past 200 years. In fact, almost all countries have experienced progress on all fronts. 



Progress in 32 other important areas.

For each of these, I could elaborate on the progress that has been made in extreme poverty and life expectancy, as I have described earlier. And for many of them, I can show you that there is a general pessimistic perception and a serious deviation from the truth. (There are some of them that we don't do surveys, so I don't know if people's perceptions are more pessimistic or deviant from the facts.) ）

Due to space constraints, I cannot give a full explanation and explanation of all the contents of these 32 items, so I will only show the charts below. Let's start with 16 bad indicators that have either disappeared completely or are already in the process of disappearing.

Also, let's look at 16 good indicators that are growing.

You can't just glance out the window and you won't notice this kind of global progress. This kind of progress happens outside of your eyesight. But if you're careful enough, you'll always be able to spot the signs of this progress. Listen closely, can you hear a child practicing guitar or piano? It is clear that the child is not drowning, but enjoying the joy and freedom that music brings.

The trend of 16 bad things is declining





The trend of 16 good things is on the rise

The goal of money, life extension is not just to gain more time, our ultimate goal is to be free. In my case, I love circus performances, play computer games with my grandchildren, and watch TV. Culture and freedom are the goals of national development, and they are difficult to quantify and measure, but the proportion of the population that owns a guitar is a good reference indicator. And this indicator has also improved a lot. If you look at the rapid rise in the number of people who own guitars, who can say that the world is getting worse?