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An Unsustainable State
Unfortunately, the world looks less than idyllic today. And this is not just pejorist thinking.
A 2024 McKinsey Global Institute analysis shows that roughly 4.7 billion people worldwide are not economically empowered, including over 300 million in high-income countries. Surprisingly, this includes over a quarter of the populations of the US, the EU, and the UK. McKinsey defines economic empowerment as the ability of people to meet their basic subsistence needs, combined with being empowered to make choices about their lives.
Mental health issues have escalated significantly, a trend seen before the pandemic and pushed into overdrive as a result of it. Rates of anxiety, depression, and stress-related disorders have soared, particularly among young people. Mental health issues are still stigmatized in every part of the world, and aging populations have led to an increase in dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and other problems.
Approximately a dozen cross-border conflicts are happening in Africa, Europe, the Caucasus, and Asia. Additionally, over two dozen internal civil conflicts are ongoing, many of which are causing significant displacement of millions of citizens internally and to other countries. These include conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
