By Alexander Green Surveys regularly show that the majority of Americans believe the nation’s best days are behind us, that our children face a diminished future and that the country is decidedly on the wrong track.
If you truly feel this way, however, it’s tough to invest in equities and reap the higher returns that they offer. After all, stocks represent a claim on the dividend distributions and future appreciation of publicly traded companies.
If the present is bad – and the future even worse – why take the risk?
Because things aren’t that bad. We live in a golden age… yet most people don’t realize it.
Getting Better
A couple of years ago, I traveled to the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., to participate in a forum called “If Everything Is Getting Better, Why Do We Remain So Pessimistic?”
The theme was a bit of an exaggeration, of course. Everything is not getting better. The unchecked growth of government is but one example.
However, the folks at the Cato Institute – an organization that conservative columnist George Will calls “the foremost defender of liberty in the country that is the foremost defender of liberty” – know this well. They merely wanted to underscore that the vast majority of human beings alive today have it better than any previous generation.
This comes as news to some people, often because they spend so much time watching the news, where crime, war, corruption, pollution, terrorism and political dysfunction are recycled 24 hours a day.
Here’s what they often miss…
The human life span has never been longer. Formal discrimination against women and minorities is continues to decline. Standards of living have never been higher. Crime is in a long-term cycle of decline.
In the West today, we have tremendous political, economic and religious freedoms. We work shorter hours, have more purchasing power, enjoy goods and services in almost limitless supply, and have more leisure time than ever before. Travel – to the next town or the other side of the world – has never been easier or more affordable. Access to the arts has never been greater.
Senior citizens are cared for financially and medically, ending the fear of impoverished old age. Literacy and education levels are at all-time highs. Technology and medicine are revolutionizing (and extending) our lives. With the exception of greenhouse gases, all forms of pollution are in decline. Despite the headlines, the risk of death by violence has never been smaller. And the Federal Reserve reports that American household net worth is at an all-time record high of $96.2 trillion.
In short, most of us live longer, healthier, safer, richer and more comfortable lives than our ancestors could ever have imagined.
Why the big disconnect between the way things are and how we perceive them?
[iu-adbox]
Conspiracy of Misinformation
One reason is simply the nature of the media. No one wants to hear about the planes that didn’t crash, the buildings that didn’t burn or the surfers who weren’t bitten by sharks.
Bad news makes good headlines. But it also presents a distorted picture of the world. Positive long-term trends aren’t news. …read more
Source:: Investment You
The post Why the Mainstream Media Promotes Pessimism appeared first on Junior Mining Analyst.