Matt Ridley: 17 Reasons to be cheerful

April's Reader's Digest carries an article based on excerpts from my book and an interview with me: "The world has never been a better place to live in," says science writer Matt Ridley, "and it will keep on getting better."

1. We're better off now
Compared with 50 years ago, when I was just four years old, the average human now earns nearly three times as much money (corrected for inflation), eats one third more calories, buries two thirds fewer children, and can expect to live one third longer. In fact, it's hard to find any region of the world that's worse off now than it was then, even though the global population has more than doubled over that period.