speljamr reviewed The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
Review of 'The Rational Optimist' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
Is the world slowly slipping into chaos? Were things truly better in the past? Is poverty taking hold in more places? According to Matt Ridley these assertions are simply not true, although you wouldn't know it from watching the news. Through his research he has found the opposite to be true: we are all richer today than our ancestors; we have more comforts today than even the recent past; we are healthier and living longer; and the future looks like things will continue to get even better.
Mr. Ridley does not insinuate that society does not have problems to solve, but that we will likely solve them and prosperity will continue to grow. This book carefully goes through several facets of modern society, such as food production, monetary wealth, and scientific and industrial progress, and shows how they measure up with the past. In no case could the author find …
Is the world slowly slipping into chaos? Were things truly better in the past? Is poverty taking hold in more places? According to Matt Ridley these assertions are simply not true, although you wouldn't know it from watching the news. Through his research he has found the opposite to be true: we are all richer today than our ancestors; we have more comforts today than even the recent past; we are healthier and living longer; and the future looks like things will continue to get even better.
Mr. Ridley does not insinuate that society does not have problems to solve, but that we will likely solve them and prosperity will continue to grow. This book carefully goes through several facets of modern society, such as food production, monetary wealth, and scientific and industrial progress, and shows how they measure up with the past. In no case could the author find us in a worse position today than those who lived before us. He even takes on global warming and how it may impact our future. I suspect this section will anger a few, but it should certainly give one something to ponder carefully.
The author clearly takes an optimistic approach to the future, as the book's title suggests. This book will challenge even the most stringent pessimist, though I am sure that it will not make the doomsayers go away; how else could we sell news? I have to admit to a bit of an optimistic outlook even prior to reading this book, but after reading Mr. Ridley's work I am now officially in the Rational Optimist camp. There are certainly things that could make the future more bleak than today, but I am convinced that these things are so rare that there is good reason to believe that we will meet the challenges of tomorrow head on and continue to prosper.
I believe this book is a must read for anyone interested in, or studying, economics. Those interested in human progress or futurism should also find it of interest.
Mr. Ridley provides plenty of notes and additional reading material in the back of the book; I expect it will give me a list for much future reading.