How do we get people to work to improve each other’s lives? Matt Ridley says the two keys are free exhange and fossil fuels.
Ridley estimates that in is his lifetime the average citizen has become three times richer, has a lifespan that is 1/3
longer, has 1/3 more food available, and loses on average 1/3 fewer children. All this has occurred while the population
growth rate has halved.
He also notes that life is markedly better worldwide in the early 21st century than it was 100 years ago, even though the 20th century was marked with horrific wars, dictatorships, etc.
At the Speculist, we’re working to get 1000 people to read the Rational Optimist. If you decide to read it, or if you’ve read it and decide to share it with someone else, we’d like to hear about it.