The progress of society is mainly the improvement in the condition of the workingmen of the world.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
A successful society is characterized by a rising living standard for its population, increasing investment in factories and basic infrastructure, and the generation of additional surplus, which is invested in generating new discoveries in science and technology.
In societies where mature workers are respected and where their wisdom is respected, everybody benefits. Workers are more engaged and productive. Their health is better. They live longer.
Because of the increased efficiency of machines, it is getting harder and harder for a human to make a productive contribution to society.
We have become stronger economically; we have been successfully resolving the social problems, raising the level of living - the standards of living - of the population.
Until the last great war, a general expectation of material improvement was an idea peculiar to Western man. Now war and its aftermath have made economic and social progress a political imperative in every quarter of the globe.
The idea of progress - the notion that human history is the history of human betterment - dominated the world view of the West between the Enlightenment and the First World War.
Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking.
As society has shifted from an agrarian to an urban structure, the joy and necessity of diligent, hard work have been neglected.
You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.
As a consequence, progress has come to mean simply more power, more profit, more productivity, more paper prosperity, all of which are convertible into standards concerned only with size or magnitude rather than quality or excellence.