Life is good! And getting better all the time.
Well, sadly for most, it's getting worse ... and worse indicators are actually there in your citations if you read between the lines.
As regards the world becoming more peaceful, the report notes:
"A number of factors have been found to be associated with increased peace. At the intrastate level, increased trade and economic engagement ...'
... yet all the indicators are the super-rich get richer, and the poor get poorer ...
'... the spread of democracy ...'
Really? Is that modern corporate democracy, or classical popular democracy ... let me guess.
'... and increasing gender equality have all been identified as important predictive factors of peace.'
And yet as inequality globally grows, it's women who eat less, work harder and suffer more compared to men.
The third report says:
"It’s not all good news in this year’s report. Happiness inequality—the gap between the top half of the population and the bottom half in terms of their life satisfaction—continues to increase. This gap is also widening in terms of how worried, angry, and sad people are feeling."
The World Economic Forum notes:
The super-rich have at least half of all new wealth generated in the last 10 years.
Billionaire fortunes increase by $2.7 billion a day – at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages.
The richest 1% possess nearly two-thirds of all new wealth, approx worth $42 trillion, created since 2020
That's twice as much money as the other 99% of the world’s population.
"Ordinary people are making daily sacrifices on essentials like food ... this decade iis shaping up to be the best yet for billionaires.”
Meanwhile food, energy and basic resource prices continue to rise.
Food and energy corporations have more than doubled their profits in 2022. They made $306 billion in windfall profits, and paid out $257 billion (84 percent) of that to rich shareholders.
At least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages, and
over 820 million people —roughly one in ten people on Earth— are going hungry. Women and girls often eat least and last, and make up nearly 60 percent of the world’s hungry population.
The World Bank says we are likely seeing the biggest increase in global inequality and poverty since WW2.
Entire countries are facing bankruptcy, with the poorest countries now spending four times more repaying debts to rich creditors than on healthcare. Three-quarters of the world’s governments are planning austerity-driven public sector spending cuts —including on healthcare and education— by $7.8 trillion over the next five years.
On balance:
Elon Musk paid a “true tax rate” of about 3% between 2014 and 2018.
Aber Christine, a flour vendor in Uganda, makes $80 a month and pays a tax rate of 40%.
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Don't just read and watch negativitfy...don't fall for the marketing if it bleeds it leads...make your own choices...or wallow in "woe is me misery" it is a choice.
OK ... just choose to read and watch all the good stuff?
