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Think the world's getting worse? Think again

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Turn on the news or listen to doom-mongers in politics and the media, and you could be forgiven for thinking the world is a more violent and unequal place than ever

Yes. I've often noticed this.

Life continues. In order to do so quite a lot of people must be doing something right. Yet very little positive news appears on the media. They deliberately select out news items having to do with death, destruction, criminal behaviour and so on.

This is not a real picture of life.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

"Roser, currently a fellow at Oxford, thinks too much analysis focuses on very recent trends, leading us to miss the bigger picture" . . . “There are answers to these questions, they’re often just not very accessible,” - article

In Doctor Roser's words:

"It is important to have an empirical view so that we can prioritize what we need to work on. . . . When we falsely believe that the world is getting worse it is easy to become cynic." (Or a Republican, snicker.)

"Having a good idea of how the world is changing is fundamental to understand why the world is changing. And understanding why the world is changing – is fundamental to knowing how to further the development that we want and make the world a richer, sustainable, healthier, and more peaceful place." source: http://www.maxroser.com/

If only the politicians and their handlers had as much wisdom as Max Roser. Visit his site shown above. Dr. Roser provides the new intellectual balance beam we should all strive to achieve and demand of our understanding of our amazing world.

Thanks JT, this article lifts all of us out of the slime of ignorance. Kudos.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I've pointed this out on this site many times. The problem is that news is a profit-based industry, that requires advertising funds to sustain itself. Articles based in fear keep people reading the news, which increases appeal to advertisers, and drives up profits.

The problem is that so many people fall to fear, and believe that because they are reading more articles on a subject, that means that the thing they are reading about is happening more. But that's an emotional reaction, not a logical one.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

"Articles based in fear keep people reading the news, which increases appeal to advertisers, and drives up profits" - comments

The counter weight to this example of capitalism is the necessity of intellectually based integrity. Instead of myriad fact-check sites the new model is still the intellectual rigor of science. To achieve this, the principles of science must become as commonly invoked as the sloganeering that now dominates the vapid discourse of today's media.

Of course, a nice prescription is still of no use if the patient can't access the medication.

Seen from afar, America continues a ruthless dismemberment of science from every craven source like the NRA to the Republican robots on FoxNews' attack on global warming.

Most recently many have read of the wholesale attack on the very idea of University education from GOP-Tea stalwarts like Rick Santorum. Santorum famously told audiences again and again education was an elitist's trick: "President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob."

So while a new paradigm of intellectual rigor is required the most recent punch dummy political debates have shown Americans are drifting further and further into a magical thinking fantasy world.

They risk becoming the most gullible voyeuristic bunch of saucer-eyed droolers led by the pied piper of pabulum in Donald Trumps appeals. Of course the GOP-Tea is leading race and cheering as their Presidential contenders drive the school bus over the cliff. Actually, Gov. Scott Walker's last war on teachers in Wisconsin proved the veracity of ignorance is equal to the audacity of hope.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The counter weight to this example of capitalism is the necessity of intellectually based integrity.

I agree - NHK is a good example of how the lack of capitalism removes integrity. Government lapdog.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

As another example of integrity, Deutsche Welle, (http://www.dw.com/en/) consistently provides the deep perspective and article progressions that allow integrated subject examination. And, of course JT.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Yet very little positive news appears on the media -BertieWooster- I believe many readers are of the same mind concerning the negativeness of media coverage, JT included. Someone should tweak the automated news exaggerators to focus on more positive news.

Heck, JT could even start another newspaper 'JAPANTODAY:)

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Good news for Indians and Chinese. Bad news for us in the developed world.

It is to a degree a zero-sum gain, despite what the globalist free-traders say.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Pre-bubble boom

For the first time it became possible for Americans to buy on credit through the credo of ‘buy now, pay later’ practices that ushered in the Roaring Twenties. Generous lines of credit were offered by department stores for families who were not able to pay upfront but who could demonstrate their ability to pay in the future. Installment plans were also offered to buyers who were not able to pay upfront. More than half of the automobiles in the nation were sold on credit by the end of the 1920s. As a result, consumer debt more than doubled during the decade (PBS, n.d).

We all know what happened next.

Some of the doomers in the media are just trying grow their audience. Some doomers are just trying to say, IMO, be prepared, because it has happened before, and the signs read the same, just a lot bigger today.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

World is a better place depending on who and where you are.If you are living in one of Europe's social democracies then life is great. If you are rich life is great everywhere. If you are an Oxford don life is peachy. If you are an university adjunct in the U.S. you are underpaid and likely to be homeless. (Note; 76% all US professors are adjuncts.) If you are Black in the US you have a good chance of being shot. If you are poor, Native American, Black or Hispanic you a better chance of being put in prison. (The US prison population is the largest in the world.) If you are a baby boomer with a public college education, which was once free, you have no debts. If you are a millennial you are going to be mired in debt. if you are a smart millennial you have mastered German and are at German university where there is no tuition. If you are an expat in Japan in my position you are breathing an extensive sigh of relief because you got out of the U.S. Meanwhile, wealth inequality is widest since 1820.

Then there is global warming.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Please read again:

In Doctor Roser's words: "It is important to have an empirical view so that we can prioritize what we need to work on. . . ."

Some seem to absolutely misunderstand Professor Roser's intense revelations. Citing the individual example, harping the personal opinion, defending the ideology, these are exactly the faults of perception science corrects. Honestly, think on what the synthesis of measurable conditions might reveal versus the internal prejudices we all harbor. This then is the discipline Professor Roser energizes.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

kcjapan. What story are you talking about in general? You flaw me being way off the string in general.

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For more information on Professor Roser's studies please read Japan Today's article: "Think the world's getting worse? Think again" Provided by Reuters News Service. Also of interest Professor Roser's web site: http://www.maxroser.com/.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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