Here is the good news. Over the medium and longer term the approximately seven billion inhabitants of the earth are living longer, healthier and more prosperous lives than at any time in history. We are, on average, living to an older age than ever before while infant mortality is down. It has become mercifully rare, at least in the developed world, for parents to suffer the pain of seeing their children die before them. In addition, the average age for the onset of chronic disease is up while many diseases have been totally eradicated or at least their onset delayed. Overall working hours are down over the long term while the type of work we do, involving less physical exertion, is less exhausting. We are better educated and the long-term trend is for us to have far more leisure time than in the past. We are also more mobile and connected thanks to technology such as cars, planes and mobile phones.

None of this could have happened without concerted global economic growth since the early nineteenth century. The resulting rise in prosperity has enabled the resources for the quality of life to rise considerably. Not only do we have far more material possessions – which is a good thing in itself – but mass affluence is closely linked to other forms of progress. It has provided a foundation for enormous advances in science, technology and medicine. It has allowed for vast improvement in the physical infrastructure including spectacular bridges, canals and skyscrapers. Connections to a clean water supply, sewerage systems and an electricity supply are taken for granted. The average supermarket provides a range and quality of food that earlier generations, who typically lived on the edge of starvation, would have found hard even to dream of. The benefits of culture, from museums and galleries to books and music, are widely available rather than the preserve of a tiny elite.

Of course the world is far from perfect. There are still massive social inequalities. The gap between the rich countries and the poorest ones remains enormous and even within the developed world there is a clear divide. But even among the poorest section of society things are getting better. For example, infant mortality in developing countries fell from 180 per thousand live births in 1950 to 60 per thousand live births at the turn of the century (Krueger 2006).