Is Progress Inevitable? (opens in new tab)

Over the last 200 years, society became steadily more liberal. Serfdom and slavery were largely abolished, democracy exploded and most women and children are free from violence. Redistribution is widely practiced and the median person is far richer, healthier and freer than ever before.Some neighborhoods in San Francisco already look like the hill on the rightWe see this progress at the generational level: people are less racist than their parents. We also see it on the historical scale: in 1...