Fewer, Richer, Greener

1Right Here, Right Now

Not too long ago, President Barack Obama said, “If you had to choose any time in the course of human history to be alive, you’d choose this one. Right here . . . right now.”¹

In a world suffering from war and rumors of war, environmental destruction, poverty, disease, inequity, and every other form of misery known to man, what was he talking about? What is so special, so desirable, about this time in history?

First of all, we are richer, far richer, than any human population that has ever preceded us. Richer not just in money and goods, but in food, health, longevity, education, culture, safety, and just about everything else that people need and crave.

Second, we are going to continue to get richer. The present state of human achievement is not a brief, shining moment that will all too quickly pass. We are on the verge of the greatest democratization of wealth and well-being that the world has ever known.

How do I know this? We mostly understand the future by studying the past. Since this is not just an economics book but also a picture book, one that tries to convey its message visually, let’s start right away with a picture of income per person in the United States from 1820 to the present and for the whole world from 1870 to the present, as shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 Income per capita, 1820 to 2018 (US) and 1870 to 2018 (world), in today’s ...