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This is a story of competing narratives. Pinker says the world is improving by most measures, and this is a credit to our global system (though of course there
by haberman 8y ago
This is a story of competing narratives.
Pinker says the world is improving by most measures, and this is a credit to our global system (though of course there is always room for improvement).
Many people, including Jason Hickel, strongly object to Pinker's characterization. They think the global system is fundamentally broken and flawed and we should be ashamed for letting it happen.
Ultimately it's a capitalism vs. socialism fight.
- ddebernardy 8y agoThere's more to that in the post. Hickel also raises that e.g. the recent improvements are actually due primarily to China and East Asian tiger economies, which have had protectionist policies; the rest of the South, by contrast, have seen a degradation of their poors' situation on a backdrop of neoliberal policies.
- myspy 8y agoI wonder why no one includes other metrics like being happy with life and having a dignified job. Metrics that are important and overlooked. Well, I have a job, but I have to slaughter animals for it, is something I would consider here too.
- andrepd 8y agoThe cynic answer is that "happiness with life" and a "dignified job" don't make the bosses any money. Numbers on a spreadsheet on the other hand...
- amval 8y agoProbably because those things are much harder to quantify or are depending on cultural factors that make difficult to establish a comparison.