Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
‘The world has never been less bad’
‘The world has never been less bad’
Aug 12, 2026 1:01 AM

A new interactive tool shows that men, women, and families from around the world have a lot more similarities than differences.

With the U.S. presidential election, confusion over Brexit, and seemingly crumbling international relationships, 2016 feels like it’s been months and months of anger, resentment, and disharmony. Americans—and non-Americans too—are feeling like we have nothing mon with anyone anymore. It’s worth taking a moment to look at the data and realize that just isn’t true.

Gapminder recently launched a new project, “Dollar Street,” with the tagline, “where country stereotypes fall apart.” This project is a study of 240 homes in 50 countries that includes more than 30,000 photos. Imagine that the entire world lives on one street, Dollar Street, and the houses are lined up by monthly e, those making $26 are on the far left and, the highest in study, a family making $11,381/month are on the far right. Everyone else falls somewhere between them. Gapminder asks, “Where would you live? Would your life look different than your neighbours’ from other part of the world, who share the same e level?”

Gapminder is an “independent Swedish foundation” that calls itself a “fact tank” rather than a think tank. They produce “free teaching resources making the world understandable based on reliable statistics.” Its founders saw, what they call a “global ignorance” about development among leaders, journalists, activists, and pretty much everyone else. There is always news about drama, nastiness, and things getting worse. Gapminder founders were curious if the world really is as bad as it seems. It isn’t. “The world has never been less bad,” the website notes. Dollar Street is just the newest tool in Gapminder’s box to help us understand the world in which we live.

You can break down the data on Dollar Street so it shows everyone or shows specific regions or countries. Then you can see photos of the families’ pets, teeth, toys, hands, toilets, families, homes, beds, bathrooms, stoves, front doors, sitting areas, books, bathrooms doors, bedrooms, toilet paper, light sources, phones, and more.

The thousands of pictures show, more than anything else, how similar the human experience is across the globe. Looking at the toys from around the world, there are plenty of recognizable types and brands even in countries we might be tempted to believe have nothing mon with the United States. Scrolling through, there are many Teddy Bears, there’s a collection of rubber ducks in Cambodia, A “minion” toy in India, A Barbie collection in Nepal, but there’s also a collection of old plastic bottles in Cote d’lvoire, armless and footless dolls in Indian and Liberia, and a plant pod in Burundi. It would be naïve to say children are all enjoying the same luxuries, but there are more recognizable toys than unfamiliar ones.

Another interesting find involves access to technology. A family with a $29/month e has a color screen, simple cell phone. There are many phones like this, but also many smart phones. On the far right side, a family living in the Ukraine taking in more than $10K/month uses an iPhone. Despite being in almost every American home for decades, there are very few landlines pictured. The creation and adoption of cell phones has helped connect us all and make someone living on less than a dollar a day enjoy similar technology to someone living on hundreds of dollars a day. A simple phone isn’t the same as an iPhone, but they both use technology that was unheard of not that long ago.

One of the best finds in the pictures? People from all countries, e levels, and climates have one thing mon: We love cats and dogs (and pigs and chickens, but cats and dogs are the mon pets). Whether we’re struggling to get by or have an abundance of wealth, we love our panions.

All photos in the project are available to be used and shared under the Creative Commons license and all content is free.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Does Legalizing Prostitution Reduce Child Sex Slavery?
Would legalizing adult prostitution decrease the demand for child sex slaves? That’s the curious argument made by one of my favorite libertarian economist. Donald J. Boudreaux , a professor of economics at George Mason University, recently wrote: If men can legally buy sex from women 18 years of age or older, men will have less demand to patronize children. And sex entrepreneurs will have less incentive to ‘supply’ children. With all prostitution being illegal, those who demand as well as...
Sour Milk and Apple Cores: Families Left Out Due to Obamacare
Obamacare – or the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – is meant to give everyone in America the best access to the best health care. But things aren’t looking so good. As we get closer to its onset, it’s ing clear that there will be fall-out. Employers (especially small-to-medium size businesses) are looking for ways to handle the onslaught of costs Obamacare will bring; one way is to offer healthcare ONLY to employees, leaving employee families out of luck, and insurance....
Sushi, Surfing, and Food Stamps
It’s no secret that the number of people receiving food stamps in the U.S. has exploded in the past few years. Not only is it easier than ever to get food stamps, the government actively recruits people to sign up. Is there waste? Are your tax dollars being used wisely? Fox News thinks not. In a recent series called “The Great Food Stamp Binge”, reporter John Roberts spent some time with a young, healthy surfer in California. His reason for...
The McDouble and the Minimum Wage
The protests organized by labor organizations to advocate for an increase in the minimum wage have garnered attention, most recently from the NYT, which editorialized in favor of such moves. Over at Think Christian, I weigh in with an attempt to provide some more of plex context behind the moral evaluation of such mandates. In the piece, I’m really less interested in the plight of current-minimum wage workers relative to those who might e minimum-wage workers with an increase, those...
Accepting Applications for an ‘Intellectual Retreat’
Looking for a great opportunity to expand your intellectual capacity? We are still seeking applicants for two ing Liberty and Markets conferences: Religion and Liberty: Acton and Tocqueville and Evaluating the Idea of Social Justice. Co-sponsored by the Acton Institute and Liberty Fund, Inc., these conferences offer an excellent opportunity for networking and discussion within a small group environment, with an average faculty/participant ratio of 1:3. Both conferences are free and include single-occupancy lodging, meals, nightly hospitality, book gifts, and...
Do the Poor Vote for More Welfare?
A popular saying (often misattributed to Alexis de Tocqueville) states that a democracy can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. If this is always the case then we should expect the poor to vote themselves even more welfare payments. However, as Dwight R. Lee explains, the desire for transfers that others will pay for has almost no effect on people’s voting behavior: This argument that a significant financial gain from...
A conflict of Christian visions: Gen. 1-2 vs. Gen. 3 Christianity
There are two prominent schools of thought within conservative Protestant circles that continue to clash over what Christianity is about because their starting prise different biblical theological visions. I use the word “prominent” here because I fully recognize that there are other more nuanced voices in the Christian diaspora. No “binaries” or “false dichotomies” are intended here. This is simply a distinction between the two dominant voices in a choir of others. One begins by constructing an understanding of the...
A Moral Foundation for Entitlement Reform
Entitlement reform cannot succeed by eliminating dependence, says Adam J. MacLeod. Instead we should aim to promote healthy dependencies. In his address, Obama placed entitlement programs in perspective, observing that many people fall on hard times through no fault of their own. “We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives,” he said, “any one of us at any time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm.”...
Christians Need a Holistic Definition of Poverty
To adequately address the problems of the lowest economic class, Christians must agree on a holistic definition of poverty that includes relational and spiritual elements. The best solutions for alleviating poverty, if not eradicating it, will involve collaborations among institutions that can address poverty in many different ways. World Vision president Rich Stearns says that poverty is a plex puzzle with multiple inter-related causes.” As a result, the best solutions (and indeed, there are many) will “help munity address their...
Free Book: ‘Judaism, Law & The Free Market: An Analysis’
For a limited time, the Acton Book Shop is offering a book by rabbinical scholar Dr. Joseph Isaac Lifshitz for free: Judaism, Law & The Free Market: An Analysis. Acton released this title at an academic conference late last year, and in it, Lifshitz examines the Jewish treatment of themes such as property rights, social welfare, charity, petition, and concepts of order. There are three ways to download this title. Click here to download this title as ePub. Click here...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved