May 2000

With the schizophrenic action of the stock market and all the negative news in the media I thought it might be a good time for a new perspective.

Back a few months ago the following information came across my desk. While I am unable to substantiate or verify it's accuracy, I thought it was interesting and I believe it substantially reflects the advances made in the last century.

23 Trends of the 20^th Century

Trend Change from turn of Century to Today

Health, Safety and Population Trends
Lifespan	Increased by 30 years
Infant mortality (per 1,000 live births)	Deaths decreased by 93 percent
Infectious disease (deaths per 1,000)	Deaths decreased 14-fold
Heart disease (age-adjusted deaths per 100,000)	Deaths more than cut in half
Air pollution (lead, micrograms/100 cubic meters of air	97 percent cleaner
U.S. residents	Increase of 250 percent
Accidental deaths (per 100,000)	Decreased 61 percent
Wealth
Per capita GDP (1998 dollars)	Almost 7 times higher
Manufacturing wage (1998 dollars)	Almost 4 times higher
Household assets (1998 dollars)	Seven times greater
Homeownership (percent of households)	Increased by 43 percent
Computer ownership (percent of households)	44 times more owners
Lifestyle/Quality of Life
Length of workweek	Decreased 30 percent
Percent of workers in agriculture	Decreased by 93 percent
TV ownership	Almost universal
Electrification (percent of households)	10-fold increase
Telephone calls (annual per capita)	Increased 5600 percent
Cars (percent of U.S. households)	Increased 90-fold
Percent of adults completing high school	4 times higher
Women with Bachelors degrees (% of degrees)	Increased by half
Productivity and Inventions
Wheat price (bushels per hours of work)	Decreased 95 percent
Computer speed (millions of instructions/second)	3 million percent faster
Patents granted	Increased by a factor of 6

I would like to suggest that we are living in some very exciting times and the outlook for the next

5/10/20/100 years will be full of promise, exciting development and opportunity. Take a deep breath and think about all the good things happening in our society.

We just need to work hard on staying focused on the positives and look at the negatives as opportunities.