2015, The Greatest Year in World, and American History

Philadelphia.
Photo by Richard Wilkins Jr.

I sense a lot of negativity in the world as 2015 begins. A lot of people think life is getting worse. They think America is in decline, the world is unsustainable, locally we're screwed, and that their life is irreversibly difficult. It's understandable. We see so much negativity every day. Disease, war, unfair labor practices, even unfair housing conditions go on in our world. Billions live on scarce resources, and a few live great. I understand.

You actually now are living in the greatest year on record though. Mankind landed on an asteroid and has a rocket in the works to go to the Moon. A person in America can speak to a person in China on the internet live and in person. Unless you're an idiot and don't vaccinate your kid, diseases that used to cripple us are now non-existent. The United States and China can sign an agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The stock market closed over 18,000 to end 2014, and looks like it will continue to rise, even as gas prices fall. The President of the United States spoke to the President of Iran last year, and moved to normalize relations with Cuba too. Lots of countries are moving more and more of their cars off of gasoline, and alternative production is up. In fact, there are more jobs in green energy than fossil fuels in America today. America is officially leaving Afghanistan, and a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians is something we actually discuss. Solar powered highways, unmanned trips to Venus, and probably an iPhone 7 are in the works for humanity.

In short, you live in the best time in the history of mankind. The world is an ever-changing, ever improving place. And America you ask? You live in a nation where we all have smartphones, drive on paved roads, have a world class and honorable military, have basically safe water to drink, have police and firefighters that usually do a good job protecting us, have a public education system that does better than not, can go buy clothes at the mall anytime, have a public health system that increasingly works, and aren't fighting Civil Wars over political divisions. While we have major problems and issues, don't kid yourself and say America is "in decline." Most of our fore-fathers would kill for our circumstances.