Peter J. Welling III Professor Brewer Data 150 21 October 2021
Interpreting a supplement to Peter Diamandis’s book, “Abundance”, it illustrates various forms of progress across multiple dimensions of human well-being. The topic that will be discussed is increasing happiness & increasing equality. In the first trend description, it represents the annual work hours per person from 1870-1978. Over that time period the amount of hours worked had decreased for all the countries that were displayed. More specifically a 50 percent reduction in the hours worked in that century period. The next display represents the number of democracies. Starting at 1800 the line trends up into the right representing that much more democratic regimes exist. The next graph shows the percentage of slaves or serfs in the world. The graph shows from 1750 to 2000 and over that time the percentage of slaves in the word decreased from 75 percent to 10 percent in 2000. Another graph shows the percentage of degrees earned by women. From 1920 to 1995, more and more women have earned degrees and the line trends way up to the right, further exemplifying that the percentages are increasing. The next graph shows the closing of the gender gap earnings. The gap is increasing at a fast rate for the age groups of 25-44 and 45-64. In the last ten years, women have gained more than 10 percent in the ratio between males and females. Another graph listed shows if tech savvy countries are happier. The graph shows a linear formation of dotted points showing that tech savvy countries are indeed happier. The following graph represents the homemaker’s use of time. In the last 100 years, hours have shifted from heavy work days and no free time to almost identical work time and free time. After analyzing all the graphs in the section of increasing happiness & Increasing equality there is much to understand. The trends all show progress in some way. From women earning more degrees, women closing the wage gap, less slaves in the world, more democracies are around the world and work hours have decreased with a higher pay wage. Although there was some form of progress displayed, it took a long time to solve these problems and they still aren’t completed today. I think it took so long to start and accomplish these problems because of the lack of knowledge and resources people had along with the fear of change in mind. Another reason why it didn’t occur more rapidly is because it needs support from people and until there is some sort of support the faster progress will be made in that space.