For those of us in what used to be called the "First World,"

* We can expect to live longer than our parents, and our children longer than us

* Diseases continue to disappear as public health measures are developed and new vaccines are introduced

* We have the Internet, which puts the knowledge of the world at our fingertips, connects us with people with whom we never could before, and allows the delivery of services undreamt.

* Stuff is cheaper. We spend less of our income on food, clothes, and housing and can invest much more in education and healthcare

* Productivity continues to rise. Output per labor hour remains on an upward trend.

* New productivity tools are invented that used to be the stuff of science fiction. That gadget in your hand used to only be a telephone, and now it's a computer that used to take up the size of a room. And virtually everyone can afford one.

* We're more energy-efficient than ever. Economic output per unit energy continues to rise.

* Despite deniers' best efforts, global warming is an existential threat, and people are rising to meet it. Soon enough solar will be cheaper even than subsidized coal, just as natural gas has become in the USA.

* Best of all, there are more scientists, engineers, doctors, teachers, and researchers alive now than at any other time on earth. More people are in school, and more complete secondary and pursue post-secondary education than ever. Not only are we smarter, but we're making ourselves even smarter than that.

There are always going to be blips. The USA has no end of drug problems and religiously applies medieval solutions. Some people refuse to vaccinate their children, cruelly exposing not only their poor kids but also the rest of us to transmissible disease. Some people like to pretend that there are too many people, when instead people are the only sources of the ideas that we use to make life richer and better.

But things are getting better in the developed world. It's just that you have to measure progress at the generational level, while you can only measure success at the temporary level.