In 2012 and 2013, The Spectator opened its Christmas special issue with a leading article counting the ways in which the world had never been a better place, and was set to get better still. We didn’t do so this year, as the list would have been a bit too similar to previous versions — but others did pick up the theme, including Dan Hannan on ConHome. This was taken up by Matthew d’Ancona in the Guardian making an excellent follow-up point: if things are so good, why don’t people feel it?

He traces this argument to Matt Ridley’s 2010 book, the Rational Optimist, and to Stephen Pinker’s 2011 book about declining violence. I agree with him that Ridley’s book is a landmark in the debate: if you haven’t read it, go buy it now. But other, earlier studies are worth noting. In 2006, Indur Goklany published a book called The Improving State of the World — Matthew d’Ancona spotted its significance and commissioned Allister Heath to bring it to the attention of Spectator readers in this article. But for me, the real eye-opener was Johan Norberg’s 2001 book, In Defence of Global Capitalism. That was written as a reaction to the anti-capitalist movement made fashionable by the likes of Naomi Klein. Norberg’s book changed the way I thought about the world. I would not have believed half of its assertions had they not been backed up by facts and figures: it converted me from a cynic into an optimist; from being agnostic about global capitalism into being convinced that it’s the greatest force for good on the planet.

Read the article “Around the World, Poverty Is Collapsing. Why Is That So Hard to Believe?” on blogs.spectator.co.uk.