Best Year On Record (2014) ; Brit See Peace Everywhere?

WOW - the British have this propensity to look at the glass as half full and not half empty. Stating the world is more peaceful then ever is not looking at the world from a perspective that sees half of the world is on fire and millions are at risk of being killed or displaced and more then two hundred thousand have already died, doesn't seem to register on the conscience of this author.

2014: Best Year on Record?
Source: Fraser Nelson, "Goodbye to one of the best years in history," Telegraph, December 26, 2014

January 2, 2015

Undoubtedly, from Ebola to ISIS, 2014 was not without its problems. But despite those things, the globe is actually more peaceful today than ever before, according to British writer Fraser Nelson in the Telegraph. In fact, 2014 marked an excellent year for human progress:

• Since 1990, global life expectancy has increased by six years -- today, it is at 71.5 years. Life expectancy has risen by five years in Western Europe since 1990 and 15 years in the African nations of Rwanda and Ethiopia.
• Living in "extreme poverty" means living on less than $1.25 per day. Since 1990, the extreme poverty rate has been cut in half.
• Cold weather used to kill 25,000 elderly British citizens each year. This past winter, the number fell to 18,200, the lowest number on record since the count began in 1950.
• The U.K. economy has grown by 60 percent since 1990, yet new technologies have caused greenhouse gas emissions to decrease.

Nelson writes gives capitalism the credit for transmitting wealth across the globe.
.