Of course, in a year that has seen the nativist old lash out against the cosmopolitan young in both the U.S. and U.K., perhaps there is a silver lining to the fact that humans have a natural term of life. But for all of the racist talk during the U.S. election campaign, the majority of Americans (including many old ones) continued to hold positive attitudes toward people who are different from them. For example, the percentage of Americans who believed that immigrants strengthen the country through their hard work and talents in 2016 was at its highest since polling began on the question in 1994. Fully 59 percent hold that view, up from 31 percent 22 years ago. More inclusive opinions aren’t limited to America or just to the migrant question. World Values Survey evidence suggests a growing acceptance of homosexuality worldwide, for example, and that’s reflected in changing laws. For all of the efforts to take away gay rights in some Southern African countries over the past few years, the overwhelming trend worldwide continued towards greater legal freedom. In 2016, homosexuality became legal in Botswana, Belize, Benin, Nauru, and the Seychelles. That is part of a wave of changes improving rights of LGBT people from changing gender through marriage to adoption.

And with regard to global environmental threats, solar energy continued its march toward affordable ubiquity, and global greenhouse gas emissions were reported flat for the second year running in March. In May, Dubai received bids to build the world’s largest solar plant at the lowest ever cost for solar electricity—3 cents per kilowatt hour for 800 megawatts of power. That price is one half the cost per kilowatt hour of the lowest prices available in 2015—a year when renewable passed coal as the largest source of power generation. There are limits to what solar can achieve in terms of powering the planet—at least absent giant technological strides in power storage—but it is a hopeful sign of what can be achieved. Alongside a strong global binding deal on reducing production of some of the most potent greenhouse gasses, hydrofluorocarbons, signed in Kigali in October, technological progress spurred by growing research and development in renewable energy gives some more hope we can continue progress towards a high energy, but still sustainable, planet regardless of revived climate denialism in Washington, D.C.

Recognizing how much progress has occurred, and how ubiquitous it has been, gives the lie to a version of international thinking that has America—or anywhere else—needing to fight for its share of a shrinking pie. The world has never been richer—nor has America. The world has never seen longer life expectancy—nor has America. The world and America are both more educated and less bigoted than ever before. For most important measures of the quality of life there is simply no tradeoff between their progress and America’s, but instead complementarity—and much benefit in cooperation. Take the economy as just one example: More than half of the $1.45 trillion worth of goods and services the U.S. exports each year goes to developing countries, including $189 billion to Mexico and $1 billion to India. Americans do better when they do better, so Americans should be happy that they are.