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It's Getting Better All the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 years (Paperback)

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4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

How has the United States changed over the past century? Is life truly better now than it was in the past? Using statistical reports and other historical materials, Moore (fiscal policy studies, Cato Inst.) and the late Simon (business administration, Univ. of Maryland) argue that for the most part people entering the new millennium are much better off than their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. The areas covered include health, economics, race relations, safety, environmental issues, and women's rights. A number of charts and graphs, well complemented by an extensive index and a bibliography, shows the positive changes that have taken place over the past 100 years. Readers will appreciate the information provided by these colorful graphics, which readily allow for additional research on subjects of interest. Recommended for reference, general social science, and American studies collections.DDanna Bell-Russel, Library of Congress
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

"More Americans than ever are living in greater affluence than ever before," concludes Moore, the Cato Institute's director of fiscal policy studies, who presents the extensive research of Julian Simon, the foremost environmental economist before his death. The core of the book deals with the long-term trends in areas such as health, diet and nutrition, wealth and income, poor Americans, housing, transportation and communications, education, safety, environmental protection, social and cultural indicators, and freedom and democracy. The authors' thesis is that there has been more material progress in the U.S. in the twentieth century than in the entire world in all previous centuries combined. Yet in the book's foreword Simon's widow contends that the killing of millions of people around the world because of Nazism, Stalinism, and Maoism must also be factored into any analysis of that century. The astounding progress in the U.S. will hopefully be replicated in the twenty-first century and extended to other nations throughout the world. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

Paperback: 294 pages
Publisher: Cato Institute; illustrated edition edition (October 25, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1882577973
ISBN-13: 978-1882577972
Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #337,033 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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34 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-Opening Details of the American Century, December 21, 2000

By A Customer

Stephen Moore and Julian Simon have compiled the most significant data of how life in America has improved since 1900.

We all know about major technological advances, but the details of the obliteration of diseases, the accumulation of material wealth and increased opportunities for ownership are astounding.

This book will trounce the nay-sayers, negativists and should silence the loudest "Chicken Little".

This book is as useful as a research tool, as it is for pleasure reading.

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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth is Stranger than Fiction, May 5, 2002

By	Michael Foudy (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is fashionable to bemoan the state of the world. The conventional wisdom is that global warming, Terrorism, drug abuse, crime, AIDS and all the rest of the crises threatening humanity lead us to the conclusion that the "good old days" were somehow better, safer and saner than today.

But, if things are so bad why is infant mortality going down around the world? If things are on the edge of anarchy why are proportionately fewer of us hungry, or sick today than one hundred years ago. If things are going to hell in a handbasket why is our life expectancy steadily improving?

These are inconvenient questions. The answers are tough on the prophets of doom.

Luckily, the conventional wisdom is wrong. Stephen Moore and Julian Simon prove this convincingly. Facts are often inconvenient. But, if you want to know the facts, this is the book for you.

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31 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A looming identity crisis for socialist utopians, May 16, 2001

By	Eugene A Jewett "Eugene A Jewett" (Alexandria, Va. United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Stephen Moore, leader of the Club For Growth, and the recently deceased Julian Simon, made famous by his bet with Robert Ehrlich and also from his solution for airline overbooking, have contributed once again to the dragon-slaying of the social justice mythology. Their rigorous compilation of data on the continued ability of free market economies to create an ever rising surplus for all people is unsurpassed. I read Simon's "State of Humanity" a couple of years ago and it was equally as informative. Alm & Cox's "Myths of the Rich and Poor" also correlates with the data presented in this book.

An interesting phenomena occurs when you present this book to die-hard socialists. They continue to disclaim its validity by eg. citing the disparity between CEO compensation and the bottom 25% of the population. In fact they present you with statistics of their own which seemingly refute the data in this book. When you probe and ask them how their statistics were compiled they become evasive and fuzzy, but they continue to rely on them to underpin their position. They engage in the fallacy of inductive logic which consists of reasoning from the particular to the general i.e. if they used the Canadian health care system for a cough and they were satisfied with the results of their medical care then ipso facto such a system is good. In addition it's better than the U.S. system because it's cheaper, etc. They ignore all the other inputs and outputs that any cursory economic study would investigate. It's almost like they would suffer an emotional crisis if they had to accept relity i.e. like the conclusions in this book. Why this is so would be worthy of continued discussion, but the need to denigrate solid evidence seems neccessary in order to retain their sense of self.

Emotional trauma, provided by irrefutable evidence contrary to a belief system, seems to erode one's certainty in adhering to a false construct; but results are uneven and take long periods of time to penetrate society. Statistics, such as we have here, are younger than our century, and have only been subject to accurate number crunching coincident with the rise of the main frame computer (in the 60's). The authors should continue to educate the people. A constitutional republic such as ours works best with the input of an educated citizenry. Kudos to Moore and Simon, may he rest in peace.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Encouraging Stats.
Great book. Very encouraging. Silences all the negative doom and gloom reports
people can tend to feed on. Read more

Published 8 days ago by thebelovedkingsdaughter

1.0 out of 5 stars Egregious Examples of 'Progress' And 'Improvement'
Potential readers of this book have a right to know that this book was not authored by Julian Lincoln Simon, as the title indicates. Read more

Published on December 11, 2004 by Gregory McMahan

4.0 out of 5 stars Smaller, richer families
A reader from Great Falls is off base on "family income" as a measure of prosperity. "Household income" is another dubious measure. Read more

Published on July 8, 2004 by Martin Brock

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is the antidote to so much pessimism
Every four years we're told how civilization has fallen into ill-rebuke. The chattering classes continue to repeat the Marxist slogan that the poor have fallen behind while the... Read more

Published on July 7, 2004 by Michael Gordon

2.0 out of 5 stars A not entirely forthright look at the subject
Moore is president of the conservative Club for Growth and has been a vociferous spokesperson for slashing taxes and reducing the size of government. Read more

Published on January 24, 2004

2.0 out of 5 stars Shallow and boring
I am a great Julian Simon / Bj�rn Lomborg fan, but this book has a limited number of mostly useless diagrams, especially from non-US perspective. But any other Simon book.

Published on January 27, 2003 by Anssi Porttikivi

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource
It's Getting Better all the Time is an upbeat statistical reference consisting of factual text and colorful graphs. Read more

Published on February 3, 2002 by Dan Poynter

4.0 out of 5 stars Good information, but sometimes frustrating
There is much excellent information here to gladden the heart of people who are gloomily convinced--as I once was--that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Read more

Published on November 12, 2001 by Dean Esmay

5.0 out of 5 stars A superbly presented survey of trends over the last century.
It's Getting Better All the Time surveys the greatest trends of the last 100 years, using statistical research and analysis to illustrate the progress made over this period. Read more

Published on January 4, 2001 by Midwest Book Review

5.0 out of 5 stars Steve Moore is the new doomslayer.
This book establishes Stephen Moore as Julian Simon's intellectual successor and the leading doomslayer in the world. Read more

Published on January 3, 2001

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