Are Progressives in Denial About Progress? Yes, but So Is Almost Everyone Else
I mean, the conclusion that things are better than people think is based entirely on measurements that the authors of the study decide represent &quot;progress&quot;.  It&#x27;s true that some gender and racial inequalities have lessened slightly, but many people including myself would say they should be eliminated entirely.  The authors are right that some health indicators like teen pregnancy for Americans have improved, but overall life expectancy for Americans has fallen for several years in a row now.  The authors are right that incarceration rates have fallen slightly, but America still has by far the largest prison system in the world.<p>I do think in many ways things are getting worse. The American economic system becomes more openly exploitative by the day, and oligarchs openly flaunt their power while we are largely powerless to stop them. There is very little accountability for powerful companies that break the law (see something like Hertz Rental Cars getting people arrested with false reports of stolen cars), and income inequality in America is growing from it&#x27;s already staggering heights.<p>The comparison for &quot;are things getting better&quot; shouldn&#x27;t be a baseline of &quot;things used to be even more terrible and now they are slightly less so&quot;, it should be &quot;are we making things better at the rate that we should be&quot;, and I think the answer to the latter is clearly no.<p>That said I&#x27;m an optimist because my left wing politics demand it of me.  A better world is certainly possible.<p>EDIT: this article doesn&#x27;t mention climate change at all does it lol.  The big looming thing that could ruin the next generation&#x27;s lives entirely.