The belief that the future will be much better than the past and present is known as the optimism bias. It abides in every race, region and socioeconomic bracket. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that an optmistic outlook is hardwired into our brains.  People in good mental health expect the furure to be slightly better than it ends up being.  People with severe depression pessimistically predict things to turn out worse than they actually do.  Interestingly, people with mild depression are actually the most accurate in predicting the outcome of future events.    Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2074067,00.html#ixzz1OMmtmfsW