“Every year, the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates the cost of a traditional Independence Day cookout. The basket includes summer cookout staples such as cheeseburgers, chicken breasts, pork chops, potato chips, pork and beans, fresh strawberries, homemade potato salad ingredients, fresh-squeezed lemonade ingredients, chocolate chip cookies, and ice cream. Since 2016, the dollar cost of this basket has risen 30.3 percent, from $56.67 to $73.82. At first glance, that suggests celebrating the Fourth of July has become significantly more expensive. But money prices tell only half of the story. The real question is not how many dollars the meal costs, but how much time people must work to earn those dollars. Since 2016, blue-collar worker hourly earnings increased 50.4 percent, from $21.48 to $32.31 per hour. Because wages rose faster than prices, the time price of the cookout actually fell 13.4 percent—from 2.64 hours of work in 2016 to just 2.28 hours today, a savings of 21 minutes,” reports Human Progress.
Infant mortality has fallen to a record low in the United States. America’s death rate for people in general has fallen to a record low. The fall in total deaths last year was largely driven by a steady drop in drug overdoses.
Child poverty has fallen to a record low worldwide.
Poverty has declined rapidly in the world’s most mountainous country, Bhutan.
Poverty has declined in Latin America, except in countries ruled by socialist dictatorships.
Global life expectancy and income are at an all-time high.
