Are we better off?

As an absolute question I think aliens might agree that humans are better off than on..I mean look around you, the idiocy and the chaos and the disparities and the discrepancies. But on the other hand they may lose their valuable source of entertainment. But I digress as always. The real question I was trying to pose and seek answers was whether we as a species are better of on the planet now than say when Henry Ford was born, or when Abe Lincoln was around or when Alexander became great or when the Egyptians decided to haul ass and build some pyramids? I was listening to a thesis from a Harvardite that in general we are doing better in terms of totality of violence and human destruction. His POV is that over the millenia we have reduced our total kill rate and therefore are a much more civilized society and that there is hope. Now clearly such a subject is abstract and quantifying violence and consequent suffering is at best a theoretical exercise. While it may be true that we do not eliminate as many people through mass eradication (think World Wars or Civil Wars or other genocides in history) it is by no means a testament that we have got more civilized. A steady increase in birth rate and increased populations on the planet now crossing the 7B mark raises the notion that perhaps we are more tolerant and accepting of our growing brood than 100s of years ago .. There is still the real threat with what is happening in Africa or in parts of the middle east or in central and South America as well as the pockets of violence in places like India and China. There are radicals or power hungry or religious fanatics that can see the world differently and will rebel violently to the point of eradicating opposite views and those that harbor them. We have on the quality of life front perhaps made some improvements in the form of technical know how aiding our day to day activity. But that also bears examining. There is something to be said about not having large numbers of children and mothers die at birth due to better vaccines and improved health care but not having a robust enough food source to feed those that survive simply prolongs the inevitable. Malnutrition still plagues about one in eight people or just shy of a billion on this planet. That is a huge deal. Whether we agree to contain our growth to a mathematical formula and ensure survival of the species as a whole or continue to believe that there is a limitless supply that can satiate demand is up for debate.