Heard The Good News?

by Michael Barone - May 29th, 2006 - U.S. News and World Report
(date above is the date on the article, I assume it is publication date of the magazine that the article will be in)

Things are better than you think. Yes, I know, most Americans are in a sour mood these days, convinced that the struggle in Iraq is an endless cycle of bloodshed, certain that our economy is in dismal shape, lamenting that the nation and the world are off on the wrong track. That's what polls tell us. But if we look at some other numbers, we'll find that we are living not in the worst of times but in something much closer to the best.

Interesting article with some very interesting information about how well the world is doing even though we are in a war. As Robert Heinlein often noted though, war is the natural state of man. There is almost never a time when there is not a war going on somewhere. Americans are not used to long ongoing wars and that is why our populace seems so depressed despite all the good news.

The really intriguing data in the article is the comparison of our growth with Europe. This quote says it all, "Lagging behind is the euro area (1 percent) and the rest of western Europe (2 percent). Lesson: Sclerotic welfare states produce mass unemployment and stifle initiative and innovation. In contrast, the Chinese and Indian growth rates show how freeing up an economy produces rapid growth, and the continued contrast between the United States and Europe makes the same point. Free-market economic growth is enabling millions of people to rise out of poverty every year . . . . "