You might think that America, and perhaps the entire world, is in serious decline.
Is everything going downhill?
Well, fear not. Some aspects of the modern world are on a steady incline toward greater heights.
For example, did you know that the world added nearly a million new millionaires last year? And almost half of those are American, at “a pace exceeding 1,200 per day.”
Wow — so many people getting fabulously wealthy and… what’s that? It seems that “median wealth — a figure more representative of typical adults than the mean — dropped across the majority of countries,” which is further “evidence of widening inequality.” Yes, even as we got more millionaires, “most people got poorer.”
OK, that’s not what we had in mind for a great surge upward. But here’s something else that’s on the rise.
It appears that “billionaires’ billions are increasing faster than ever.” Billionaires have a “combined wealth that is equivalent to nearly a fifth of the entire world’s total yearly output.”
We are now at in a situation where “the surging financial and political power of a few hundred individuals contributes to a growing inequality that is likely to persist for generations because most of that wealth escapes taxation, creating a self-perpetuating aristocracy.”
These insatiable oligarchs are the chief reason for the “shrinking slice of the economic pie that goes to workers” and the acceleration toward “a level of wealth concentration that will break society.”
OK, that is not what we had in mind when we clamored for more. But we can’t help ourselves.. We are Americans. Clamoring for more is kind of our thing.
In any case, there is one more aspect of modern life that is skyrocketing.
Last year witnessed “the highest number of conflicts between states since World War II, and the highest number of fatalities recorded since the Rwandan genocide.”
Yes, we’re getting more war. And if you thought 2025 was just an anomaly, “data this year so far shows the rise in conflicts globally is a trend that’s likely to continue.”
Researchers say that “the extremely high number of conflicts and wars … lends credence to the growing number of voices arguing that we are witnessing the end of Pax Americanaand the liberal world order.”
So if you’re feeling down, just remember that at least a few things are going up — like war, economic inequality, and the political power of trillionaires.
Truly, the sky is the limit.
