From Reader's Digest, here's a list of ten reasons to be thankful with the world we live in:
1. The typical American has more free time than ever - more than five hours per day, according to time surveys by the U.S. Census Bureau. That's a gain of nearly an hour since 1965. In Victorian England, when life expectancy was only about 50, workers put in 60-hour work weeks from age 10 until they died.
2. Despite the growth in population, the number of war casualties around the world has declined. Over the past century, even counting world wars, a person's chance of dying from war or violent civil strife was less than 2 percent (less than the chance of a car accident in the U.S.).
3. In 1950 the typical new American home had one floor with 1,000 square feet, and nearly half didn't own their own homes. Today those figures are 2,200 and 1/3.
4. In 1970 barely half the people in the world were literate. Today that figure is 80%. Twenty-two percent have Internet access.
5. The average 18th century regal Frenchman consumed less than 2,000 calories per day. Today, the typical person in a poor country consumes 2,700, thanks to advances in growing food at low cost.
6. In recent decades, America has gained 70 million acres of wilderness.
7. Compared with 1970, today's automobiles burn less gasoline per mile and emit 98% fewer pollutants.
8. Thanks to the abundance of television stations today, viewers have more choices than ever, and producers can afford to experiment with programs for every taste, such as sophisticated dramas or edgy comedies.
9. The U.S. and former Soviet Union agreed years ago to dismantle 90% of nuclear weapons. So far tens of thousands have been slashed from each nation's peak of 50,000.
10. Memories last longer than ever, due to advances in memory-improvement drugs and in technology (which all Hidden Bloggers know first hand).
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