We've improved so insanely much from even 50 years ago. By almost every metric I am aware of, the world is a better place today than any point in history before it, with the possible caveat that this last decade has been a rare regression. But even if this last decade was worse than the one that proceeded it, 2012 is worlds better than 1950, which was better than 1900 which was better than 1703, which was better than 1492, and so on forever.

Humanity is on a seemingly unstoppable positive trend of making the world better. There may be decades or two of regression here and there, but we have always rebounded better than before that regression anyway. Science and medical technology continue to propel our world to unimagined heights. That trend has continued since the start history and there is no reason to suppose that it will not continue.