Why I'm an optimist

I am optimistic about the economy and the market. Perhaps even a permanent optimist.

ITake a look at this chart, showing inflation-adjusted US GDP per capita since 1850:

What happened during this time?

• 1.3 million Americans died fighting in nine major wars.
• Four American presidents have been assassinated.
• 675,000 Americans died in a single year from a flu pandemic.
• 30 separate natural disasters have killed at least 400 Americans each time.
• 33 recessions which, taken together, amounted to a whopping 48 years.
• The stock market has fallen more than 10% from a recent high at least 97 times.
• Shares have lost a third of their value at least 12 times.
• Annual inflation has exceeded 7% for 20 separate years.
• The words "economic pessimism" appeared in newspapers at least 29,000 times, according to Google.

And yet our standard of living has increased 20 times.

Being optimistic does not mean that I think misfortunes will never happen. They will arrive. But I am convinced that the long-term odds are in my favor.

Analyst Cullen Roche recently summed up the situation:

I'm sure there are more people who wake up in the morning and say "I want to be smarter and stronger than I was yesterday" than there are those who say "the world is doomed, I have to build a bunker and hide in it."

130,000 Americans will graduate with engineering degrees this year. Don't you think at least one of them will do something amazing?

American households have $66 trillion in net worth. You don't think they'll use this money usefully?

2.8 billion people survive with less than $2 a day. You don't think they'll jump at every opportunity to improve their lot?

Pessimists are convincing. They exploit fear and doubt. As Josh Brown has writing : "Pessimism is intellectually seductive and the arguments always sound more intelligent, especially when they resonate with our own concerns. But itCount the bears on the Forbes 400 list or the number of pessimists running Fortune 500 companies... you won't find any."

Source : http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/06/04/why-im-an-optimist.aspx?source=ihpsitas0000001&lidx=4