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1945-1995​—50 Years of Progress?

HAVE you seen some improvements in the quality of your life over the last 50 years?a Consider medicine. In some countries, such as Britain, Canada, Cuba, and Sweden, the introduction of the welfare state, with its system of social medicine, guaranteed that regardless of patients’ economic standing, doctors and hospitals would be available to all.

Even some of the developing nations have been able to improve health standards for their citizens. JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) recognized that “some third world health ministries have succeeded in providing universal-​access primary health care at a cost their countries can sustain. . . . Remarkable progress has been made in reducing infant and childhood mortality in China, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, and the Indian state of Kerala.”

Material Improvements

Compared with the economic situation in 1945, many people are far better off materially in 1995. Many who 50 years ago would not have been able to afford luxuries now own cars, TVs, VCRs, CD players, refrigerators, cellular phones, and other products of modern life. Perhaps you are one of those millions.

As the authors of the book series A History of Private Life explain, “for thirty years after World War II France [along with other western European countries] experienced steady economic growth, which, while not eliminating class distinctions, brought new prosperity to all classes of society. With a ‘decent’ house, a ‘modest’ automobile, and a television set, along with the added blessings of the welfare state and modern medicine, everyone could enjoy, if not paradise on earth, at least a tolerable existence.”

The question is, however, Do more material things mean that people are better off in every sense? Does the accumulation of material benefits automatically mean that life is better or safer? More possessions for some still leaves many poor people without. That increases the temptations for thievery, mugging, fraud, and other more violent crimes. Some of the have-​nots are determined to become the haves​—by hook or by crook. For example, in New York City, more than 100,000 cars are stolen each year. Material benefits do not guarantee a more secure life.

There have been improvements in other fields, although not as much as some would have liked.

Women​—Then and Now

World War II gave impetus to a new role for some women. Many were used to being mothers and housewives, while the husband was the breadwinner. The second world war changed all of that. Men were taken off to war, and their wives suddenly found themselves working in munitions factories or in other jobs vacated by the men. In more recent times, some have gone into the armed services and learned to kill. Millions of women became wage earners and got a glimpse of a different life-​style with its financial independence. That was the thin edge of the wedge that gradually opened the door to the “liberated woman” of today. In their battle for equality, some women say there is still a long way to go in many countries. They say there is a “glass ceiling” that impedes their upward mobility in many jobs.

Mass Migrations Create Problems

Another huge change over the last 50 years is the abandoning of village life and agriculture in an effort to find a better life in the city. For some this dream has come true. But what have been the results for many others?

Each year millions migrate to the already overpopulated cities, where housing is insufficient and expensive. One result? Shantytowns that become a breeding ground for disease, crime, and political destabilization. These homemade dwellings, put together from discarded scraps of cardboard, wood, or corrugated iron, are the hovels, barracas or chabolas (Spanish), that house the struggling and impoverished underclasses of the world. These shantytowns​—favela in Portuguese and gecekondu in Turkish (meaning “built in a night”)—​are a fact of life that cannot be ignored, whether in Africa, India, South America, or anywhere else.

The Present and Future for Some African Countries

What can be said of Africa? Two doctors writing in JAMA headlined their article: “Africa on the Precipice​—An Ominous but Not Yet Hopeless Future.” They recognized that the political and social conditions in most of Africa present a minefield of problems. They wrote: “For sub-​Saharan Africa [an area of 45 countries], the past 20 years have been disastrous. The region has been beset by famines, droughts, civil wars, political corruption, AIDS, a rapidly increasing population, decreased food production, environmental degradation . . . Experts are unanimous in their prediction that further economic decline, poverty, and suffering are inevitable, at least in the short term.” The same article reports that 32 of the world’s 40 poorest countries lie in sub-​Saharan Africa.

Now what about the current moral climate in the world? The next article will briefly discuss the world’s “progress” in this regard.

[Footnotes]

[Picture Credit Line on page 6]

USAF photo

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NASA photo