Overall, yes, the median person on the planet is materially better off. But that is the past, and was in many ways due to a great long period of relative peace and globalisation. The 50s and 60s had great optimism about new scientific advancements making life better for the next generations. Nuclear, space, all kinds of automation, television. The late 80s and early 90s had great optimism about the end of the cold war, the world coming together, end of history. Late 90s had great optimism about the internet bringing people together and massively boosting productivity, with robots automating a lot of boring manual tasks.

But what to be optimistic about now? Do you really have a positive, optimistic vision of US 2050 or Europe 2050? What is it? What kind of a world are we actually building and going towards?