Brad DeLong describes the 20th century as “slouching towards utopia.” He views prospects for the next 20 years as even brighter.

Today’s ongoing revolutions in biotechnology-and-information technology see technological progress of at least 15% per year in industries that make up 13% of total production — a direct leading-sector boost to economic growth of 2% per year. Indeed, today’s world economy packs more structural change and technological progress into a decade than the 20th century packed into a generation.

He also sees the global distribution of income becoming more equal, as the Internet allows the developing countries to enter the white-collar services market.