Will the next generation be better off than this one? Given that history shows our world almost always getting rich, safer and healthier, you'd think the answer to that would be a clear yes. After all, in the 27 years since 1990, extreme poverty is down by 75%, child poverty has halved and world hunger is down by 40%. In the UK real incomes are taking a breather, but the average full-time earner is still taking home double what he or she was in 1975. Hourly wage inequality has fallen every year since 1998 and across the UK income inequality as a whole has been falling for years. That's all good.
However, ask anyone around you if they think things are getting better and the answer is very likely to be no. Some 71% of Britons think the world is getting worse and a mere 19% think that their children will be richer, healthier and safer than they are. Ask the Germans and the Americans and they will tell you the same (the figures for them are 15% and 14% respectively). It seems that they no longer trust the system that has bought us such riches. Capitalism is developing a serious reputational problem.
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