If the News Is All Bad, Then Why Is the World More Prosperous Than Ever?

From poverty to health to education, life on Earth has improved dramatically. But traditional news keeps us focused only on what’s broken.

Turn on the news—any time, any channel—and you’ll hear about disaster, dysfunction, division, and decline. War. Crime. Political chaos. Environmental collapse. It can feel like the world is coming apart at the seams.

And yet… it’s not.

In fact, by almost every meaningful long-term measure, the world is improving. Global life expectancy has risen from 52 years in 1960 to over 72 today. Extreme poverty has fallen from over 40% of the world’s population in 1981 to under 8%. Child mortality has plummeted. Literacy is up. Cancer survival rates are climbing. Energy is cleaner. Technology is more accessible. More people live in democracies. More girls are in school. More humans have electricity, clean water, and connection.

So why don’t we hear about this?

Because the economics of media reward fear over facts. Traditional news outlets—on TV, online, and even in our social feeds—are locked in a battle for our attention. And nothing holds attention like danger. Psychologists call it “negativity bias.” Newsrooms call it “if it bleeds, it leads.”

But this has consequences. When we only see the world through a lens of catastrophe, our understanding becomes warped. We become more anxious, more cynical, more tribal. We lose the ability to lead with hope—or even to imagine solutions.

Serious people need clear vision. Leaders, teachers, parents, entrepreneurs, scientists, policymakers—none of us can afford a distorted worldview. To lead wisely, we must understand both the risks and the progress. The threats and the breakthroughs. The losses and the wins.

The Bellwether Report exists to rebalance the lens. Not with naive cheerleading—but with clarity. With data. With stories of invention, compassion, resilience, and real global improvement. Because optimism isn’t blind. It’s based on evidence. And it’s the only mindset that builds a better future.

If the news is all bad, maybe it’s not the world that’s broken. Maybe it’s just the filter.