It seems, these days, that you can't turn on the TV or log on to social media without someone griping about how awful things are. They complain about everything, from taxes to avocados to bills to cell signal strength. But the truth of things is a lot rosier than popular media would lead you to believe. Global illiteracy rates are below 14 percent. Global rates of extreme poverty are below 10 percent. Despite there being more people currently alive on the planet than ever before, there are also more calories per capita than ever before. This is not to say that there aren't improvements to be made or that there aren't bad things happening, but perhaps bearing these facts in mind might improve our outlook on life. Join Antony Davies and James Harrigan as they talk about thankfulness and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Walmart employs 1% of Americans

http://www.businessinsider.com/largest-employers-each-us-state-2017-6

http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-employees-pay

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/business/walmart-workers-pay-advances.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/12/nearly-every-american-spent-money-at-wal-mart-last-year.html

High school reports 100% college placement rate

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/12/17/570255742/teachers-around-the-country-react-to-investigation-into-ballou-high-school

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/11/28/564054556/what-really-happened-at-the-school-where-every-senior-got-into-college

Data

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/09/how-americans-compare-with-the-global-middle-class/

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/cell-phones-demography-nielsen-data-breaks-mobile-phone/story?id=11468925

https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/entertainment/2005-04-10-brick-cell-phone_x.htm

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA

http://graphics.wsj.com/what-percent/