The first edition of DIE ZEIT appeared in 1946. We celebrate with people, things and ideas that are just as old as we are – and still move the world today.
THE TIME: Mr. Schröder, your book is titled Why things have never been so good for us and we still talk about crises all the time. What makes you so confident in the face of all the real crises?
Martin Schröder: The numbers are clear. If you compare the world of today with that of 1946 and the decades after, enormous progress can be seen: poverty worldwide has been more than halved; in 1981, 44 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty; in 2015 it was only around 10 percent. Average life expectancy has increased dramatically and child mortality has fallen. In 1960, almost one in five newborns worldwide died within the first five years of life; today it is less than one in 20. Even the risk of falling victim to a war has fallen by more than 90 percent since 1950. Even if Putin’s attack on Ukraine drove up the number of war deaths again. And people have become smarter overall. Anyone who is considered to be of average intelligence today would have been among the smartest 80 years ago.