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Progress

Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future

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Progress

By: Johan Norberg
Narrated by: Derek Perkins
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About this listen

From an examination of official data from such institutions as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Johan Norberg paints a portrait of a better future ahead.

It's on the television, in the papers, and in our minds. Every day we're bludgeoned by news of how bad everything is - financial collapse, unemployment, growing poverty, environmental disasters, disease, hunger, war. But the rarely acknowledged reality is that our progress over the past few decades has been unprecedented. By almost any index you care to identify, things are markedly better now than they have ever been for almost everyone alive.

Examining official data from the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, political commentator Johan Norberg traces just how far we have come in tackling the issues that define our species. While it's true that not every problem has been solved, we do now have a good idea of the solutions, and we know what it will take to see this progress continue. Dramatic, uplifting, and counterintuitive, Progress is a call for optimism in our pessimistic, doom-laden world.

©2016 Johan Norberg (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Anthropology Future Studies Politics & Government Social Sciences United States World Socialism Capitalism Africa War Imperialism Latin America Social justice Health Middle East
All stars
Most relevant  
This has changed my outlook on the world and where we are headed, for the better.
I am concerned this data may be cherry picked ( I need a hard copy to see if it is referenced) but if not it is great news for us all.
Highly recommended.

Too good to be true? Hopefully not.

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A brave counterpoint to the constant negativity about how terrible our allegedly world is. People like to bemoan modern culture and society and there appears to be a current trend of blaming capitalism for everything that is wrong with the world, where as this book will demonstrate the opposite... The world is currently a better place to live than it ever has been at any time in human history, and (in my conclusion and summary) this is really thanks to the free flow of capital.

A brave counterpoint

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a great book for a positive reflection on the world as it is now and the struggles and triumph to gwt here.

a great book for a positive reflection on now

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A great summary of why the world is getting better and why we aren’t aware of this

Fantastic - a great book during a pandemic

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balanced arguements with clear boundaries. a centerist approach to explanations. The reading was clear and I enjoyed it.

Great look into the future

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Loved all the statistics and numbers. I think it would make a great subject for school. It really gives you a good overview, about our anchestors life circumstances and what we achieved until today. The predictions that turned out to be false due to progress and the limitation of being able to have a holistic understanding of dependencies and of cause and effects.

The Missed History Lesson From Our Education

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I did a double take when the author mentioned possible pandemics and the war in Ukraine since it was written in 2016. But the author does talk about how much progress humanity has made in the last 200 years from extensions in life expectancy to an a near end of child labour to an improving natural environment.

A reminder of how far humanity has come

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An hour in it became clear to me that this book is written from a perspective of privilege and subtly downplays the bigger picture consequences of measures he claims help people.

He presents a skewed perspective of the experience of vulnerable and disenfranchised people, one that I cannot see has come from the people themselves.

‘This is good for you’

There’s an underlying agenda in this book and it serves the privileged best by giving us a pat on the back and reassurance that our actions aren’t so bad.

I’d recommend Bill Bryson’s At Home: A Short History of Private Life. It’s far more interesting and presents accounts of life for people through the ages, famine and disease included. Without an agenda.

Capitalist agenda

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