5 pieces of good news

Cracked reports on five pieces of good news:

#5. We’re Closing in on World Peace (Seriously)

Even with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the first decade of the 21st century saw the number of annual battle deaths at its lowest ever in history.

The number of deaths in significant conflicts in 2013 was around 98,000 out of a global population of over six billion. And 70,000 of those were in Syria alone.

#4. Teen Are Less Likely to Smoke, Drink, or Do Drugs Than Ever

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has been surveying tens of thousands of high schoolers for almost four decades, and not only is drug use down, but almost every form of substance abuse is down.

And not only are the kids not injecting hardcore narcotics any more, they’re also consuming alcohol at record lows, as binge drinking continued its five-year decline right into 2012.

In NZ also, the number of svhool age teenagers who drink alcohol is at record lows.

#3. We’re Getting More Tolerant

If compared to an ideal world free of prejudice, the current state of things is a shameful walrus orgy of a disaster. If compared to the actual world at any point in the past, things look pretty fucking good.

For example, in 2013, 87 percent of Americans surveyed approved of interracial marriage. Just 50 years ago, over 90 percent of Americans disapproved.

A long way to go, but much better than in the past.

#2. Literacy Is at an All-Time High

First, we need to point out that we live in the most literate world ever. Currently, about 99 percent of American adults can read and write. But that’s America — a better question would be how the rest of the world is doing. The answer is also pretty impressive. Take India, for example, and its 1.2 billion people. Fifty years ago, only 18 percent of them could have enjoyed the Twilight saga. Today, over 60 percent of the country can enjoy literature’s greatest love story. Worldwide as a whole, that figure is 84 percent.

It’s 94% in Vietnam.

#1. Worldwide, Poverty Is Dropping at a Shocking Rate

Yes! Even though lately it seems like the whole world is in a race to the bottom, the poorest of the poor are actually climbing out of the financial shithole. From 1990 to 2012, the number of the world’s extreme poor was cut in fucking half. In case you were wondering, that would be the first significant global decline in extreme poverty.

So how did this happen? International aid helped, but the big jump has been in the increased participation of previously isolated countries in international trade. 

Yet certain political parties continue to oppose freeing up of trade barriers.