It is now widely acknowledged that the world is getting worse, that living conditions are deteriorating, that there are fewer opportunities, that we are going backwards for the first time and that new generations are now living worse. That’s what the newspapers tell us, that’s what the columnists assure us and that’s what our eyes got used to seeing.

The explanation for this setback is simple: globalisation has failed, we live in a world where very few win and almost everyone loses. That’s what we hear, on the left and the right of the political spectrum.

On the one hand we are told, usually by the left wing, that this global economy is allowing the richest to become increasingly wealthy while the poorer are being exploited. There is a kind of warning cry against the oligarchy. On the other hand we are told, usually by the right wing that this global economy is opening borders to enemies of our way of life who are stealing our jobs and contributing to impoverishment. There is a kind of warning cry against foreigners. 

On both sides, we are told that this global economy allows the strongest, the most powerful, to travel the world and do what they want, relocating companies where they want, paying low taxes, and living at the expense of countries that they exploit, in a kind of informal conspiracy. The description of this conspiracy varies. The left wing usually talks of a conspiracy led by the wealthy 1%. The right wing speaks of a Marxist-cultural conspiracy.

This is not an encouraging perspective and it lies at the heat of populism, polarization, intolerance, the emergence of this absurd concept of “illiberal democracy”, the predisposition for democratic setbacks and, above all, defence of the end of globalisation, capitalism, the affirmation of a new order.

And if want to beat these populists we have two options: either we believe we are getting worse today, and we have to do something about it; or things are not like they say and we’d better get that message across. The worst that could happen was to come up with solutions to problems that don’t exist as described.

It turns out that it’s not possible to prove that the world is worse today. And it’s not possible because all the data prove otherwise. We are globally better off today than before: growth, fighting poverty (did you know that the number of people in poverty is at the lowest level in history, that we have the largest middle class ever, that global inequality is not increasing, for example?), health, education, working conditions, women’s rights, protection of minorities, access to water and energy, and even as regards public environmental policies we are now more aware and active than in the past.    

Today the average person in the world is 4.4 times richer than the average person in the world in 1950. In Portugal, this figure is more impressive: the average Portuguese is now 10 times richer than average Portuguese in 1950.

All of these improvements challenge a certain logic that many considered had to contradict: that for someone to win, someone else would have to lose. If we believed in this logic, a sevenfold increase in the world population would be enough then to lead us to extreme poverty, since more people sharing wealth would determine that there would be less wealth. That hasn’t been the case.

Of course, there are many problems to solve, considering that the world is far from being a perfect place, and there are many (and serious!) challenges to overcome, because globalization is dynamic and fast. But none of this can be solved by getting rid of what has brought us successfully here: globalization and capitalism.

If we want to beat the populists and the radicals, we don’t have to buy their theses, playing the same game: they share wrong assumptions and it’s our duty to dismantle their narratives and show how, despite all problems, despite all the challenges, today we are living better than our grandparents.