2010

Yay, a new year! A new decade.

It's easy to take potshots at the previous decade. We got into the endless and unwinnable 'war on terror' during this decade, due to a complete misunderstanding of ourselves and our enemies. We raised the national debt to stratospheric levels. We lost jobs even while adding 35 million additional people to our country. The stock market is down from where it was in 2000, in inflation adjusted terms, it has lost 30% of its value. Corporate corruption, from the bank bailouts to Enron to Bernie Madoff, all reached unprecedented heights. Wages remain stagnant, even though productivity has gone up and up. Energy prices have tripled, but environmentalists still prevent any production of new dams, oil rigs, nuclear plants, offshore windmills, or even solar power plants to help meet the shortfall. It was a bad year. It was a bad decade. But we already know about that. Maybe it would be better to discuss the good things that happened instead.

This year's crime rates dropped to as low as they were in the 1960's. Crime is the lowest in most living people's memories. Griping continuously about minority crime now sounds ridiculous. What crime? There was more crime when the country was 90% white than there is today. Crime rises and falls not based on race, but on the willingness of a community to fight crime. When a community refuses to capture and imprison its criminals, or give individuals the right to bear arms, crime goes out of control. Alternatively, when criminals are caught and locked up, and people do have the right to bear arms, crime plummets. This decade was the decade America decided it was sick of crime, got serious, and locked up all the criminals while giving concealed carry permits to all of its honest citizenry. As a result, most of us can live peaceful lives whether we're in Salt Lake City or New York City.

The USA's economy did grow, even though the last couple years have been recessionary. But more importantly, the world's economy has been growing. As China, India, Russia, and Brazil get richer, they start to want new computers, new cars, new airplanes, and more beef, things Americans are eager to provide them, giving us new influxes of wealth and jobs through mutually beneficial trade. If the world's economy keeps growing, America will be able to buy better stuff for cheaper on one hand, and sell more expensive stuff to more people, on the other. It is completely win-win.

Over the last decade the internet has shifted from dial-up to broadband. The new internet is light years better than what we had in 2000, and it promises to continue improving well into the future. Features like mobile internet devices, streaming video, blogs, facebook, etc are all innovations of this decade that people can't even imagine living without anymore. Quality of life has improved dramatically due to the internet giving people new ways to access information, make friends, find lovers, share thoughts, and download free digital content.

The internet still has a ways to go. One thing I'd like to see is search engines that can answer questions directly. "How far is it from Chicago to LA?" Another is quick and easy access to obscure data. For instance, I should be able to type in 'French per capita GDP PPP inflation adjusted 1900-2009,' into my search bar, and the link provided should simply be a chart, either already posted online, or constructed then and there by the computer's own intellect after browsing for all the relevant numbers necessary to make the chart itself. Information needs to be at our fingertips, not in oceans of nonsense we can only 'surf' over and through in the hopes of striking gold. But given the amount of innovation in the previous years, I feel confident that the internet isn't nearly done yet. The transformations will continue apace.

The science of food production has improved. Several crop and animal species have had their genomes sequenced, giving farmers another powerful tool to improve yet again. Stem cells derived from adult skin cells have turned a rare resource into a plentiful one, giving scientists the first chance to construct miracle cures to ailments as diverse as blindness to old age. Computers have doubled and redoubled in memory and processing power.

The International Space Station and the Large Hadron Collider are the decade's masterpieces. We will start to reap their rewards in 2010, but their impact will be felt for decades to come. There's no telling what discoveries we'll make in these two research labs.

We found water on Mars and the Moon, upping the possibility for life on other planets, and our ability to colonize them.

We found planets outside our solar system. Hundreds of them. Many of them quite similar to the Earth. This again ups the chances of extra-terrestrial life.

Our decade has probably been the most peaceful in world history. The amount of people who died in violent conflict was far less than the 1990's (Rwanda, Congo, etc). Or the 1980's. (Lebanon, Iran-Iraq war, Afghanistan, etc.) Or the 1970's (Vietnam). Our wars continue to get 'smarter.' Bombs that used to demolish whole cities now fly through windows to take out individual rooms. The 'smart' bombs of the Gulf War weren't nearly as good as the ones we used in the 2000's. Likewise, our missile defense systems shot down every single missile Saddam fired at us in Gulf War II, but were terribly unreliable in Gulf War I. We can protect ourselves better than ever before, and kill our enemies (and only our enemies) better than ever before, thanks to this decade. Three cheers to the F-22 raptor, another product of this decade, whose performance (and cost) was out of this world.

Length of life has steadily increased.

Great music, movies, video games, anime, and books were released. Treasures that never existed before, but will always exist hereafter. Generations of kids yet unborn can return to this decade for pleasure after pleasure. Superhero movies of fantastic quality became a trend. World of Warcraft took the world by storm. Wheel of Time, Sword of Truth, the EA Cycle, Deverry, and yes, Harry Potter was published. Magic the Gathering came out with consistently better looking and better playing sets than anything they managed in the 90's. (Can anyone say Shadowmoor?) Anime entered a golden age -- One Piece, Naruto, Inuyasha, Clannad, Higurashi, Code Geass, Haruhi, K-ON!, practically every good series ever made, was made this last decade. Playstations evolved into Playstation 2's. Playstation 2's evolved into Playstation 3's. The Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings trilogy were filmed, two series that I imagine will never die.

Drug use, divorce rates, drunk driving, and other vices have stabilized or even declined. It's a small solace considering how much higher these rates are than fifty years ago, but at least it's something.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. It really has been a decade full of good news. And as the decade has finally come to a close, there's no better time than today, to celebrate this progress, be grateful for its fruits, and await yet better harvests in the days to come. Happy New Year's! -- Let's toast to an even brighter tomorrow.