In a time of contentious Supreme Court decisions, economic woes, and opinionated Americans living in a post-Christian nation, it’s easy to see what’s wrong. But economist Morgan Housel compiled a lengthy list of good things in America.
- Way back in 1949, Popular Mechanics predicted that someday a computer could weigh less than one ton. Now iPads weigh less than a pound.
- One hundred years ago, the average American died at age 51. Now, the average American retires at age 62.
- In the 1950s the median household income was half what it is today (adjusted for inflation).
- Even though the U.S. population grew by 60 million from 1991-2010, crime fell dramatically. Rape is down by a third, robbery is down more than half, and there were nearly four million fewer property crimes in 2010 than in 1991.
- In 1990, almost no one had a refrigerator. Now you can have one in your car.
- Today’s new homes often have more bathrooms than occupants.
- Today’s high school graduation rates are at a 40-year high.
- It may seem like we work all the time, but the average American workweek has declined from 66 hours in 1850, to 51 hours in 1909, to 34.8 today.
- The price of food has dropped 90 percent since the 19th century (relative to wages).
- More Americans have college degrees. In 1940, only five percent had them, by 2012 over 30 percent did.
- World hunger? From 1920 to 1980, an average of 395 people per 100,000 died from famine worldwide each decade. During the 2000s, that number fell to three per 100,000.
- How about long distance calls? A three-minute phone call from New York City to San Francisco cost $341 in 1915. Today, many of those calls are free.
- Speaking of telephones, in 1950, almost 40 percent of Americans didn’t have one. Today with more than 500 million Internet-connected devices, that averages to about 5.7 per American household.