This morning I woke up to yet another video of some new age wannabe poet making a media based mockery of our planet. There hasnt been a time in the history of mankind where you couldnt ramble off about all the horrible things happening across the world. Our government is corrupt, people are starving, the economy is in shambles. But is our world any worse off today than it ever has been? I decided to look up some statistics that will encourage people and give hope back to the human race instead of remind us all how shitty everything is. The news does a good enough job of that on their own. Divorce rates in America have gone down every year since 2006 and are at the lowest level since 1970. Infant mortality is at an all time low, from .46% to .35% in the last 8 years. Cancer mortality rates have dropped 20% in the last 25 years. Breast cancer occurrences began decreasing in 2000. They dropped by 7% from 2002 to 2003 alone. 100 years ago, being pregnant was almost as dangerous as having breast cancer is today. Life expectancy has doubled since the 1800s. The average newborn today can expect to live an entire generation longer than his great-grandparents could. Poverty is down worldwide. It decreased more in the last 50 years than it did in the previous 500. Unintended pregnancies have gone down dramatically and consistently since 1995 Safer vehicles and safer driving has dropped vehicular deaths by over 300% since 1980, saving over 65,000 lives. More girls are attending school across the world than ever before. The literacy rate for women in their 20s has risen from 29% in the 1990s to 87% today. A flu pandemic in 1918 infected 500 million people and killed as many as 100 million. Today, you can go to walgreens and get a flu shot. It costs 15 bucks. In 1949, Popular Mechanics magazine made the bold prediction that someday a computer could weigh less than 1 ton. my Ipad weighs 0.73 pounds. America averaged 20,919 murders per year in the 1990s, and 16,211 per year in the 2000s, according to the FBI. If the murder rate had not fallen, 47,000 more Americans would have been killed in the last decade than actually were. Reported rape per 100,000 Americans dropped from 42.3 in 1991 to 27.5 in 2010, according to the FBI. Robbery has dropped from 272 per 100,000 in 1991 to 119 in 2010. There were nearly 4 million fewer property crimes in 2010 than there were in 1991, which is amazing when you consider the U.S. population grew by 60 million during that period. In 1900, African Americans had an illiteracy rate of nearly 45%, according to the Census Bureau. Today, its statistically close to zero. People talk about how expensive college is today, but a century ago fewer than one in 20 Americans ever stepped foot in a university. College wasnt an option at any price for some minorities because of segregation just six decades ago. The amount of deaths due to famine worldwide has dropped over 1000% since 1920. Now I know there are a lot of crummy things happening every day but I am very optimistic for longevity and well being of the human race. Try and remember all the positive things happening today and dont fill your wall with idiots trying to bring you down. Have a good day! -Dee Benham
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 18:12:30 +0000
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