The FREE MARKET has made this world MUCH MUCH BETTER. World poverty has declined dramatically in direct proportion to the spread of market institutions in the world. The World Bank statistics are easily consulted to prove the following:
- In the past 50 years, more progress has been made against poverty than in the previous 500!
- In 1820, the % of people in absolute poverty was 85%. By 1950 it was 50%. In the 80s it was 33% and in the 2000s it was 18%!!!
- For the first time in history the percent AND number of people in absolute poverty has decreased (from 1980-2000) Yet we are led to believe the opposite- that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer!
- The caloric intake of the world has increased by 30%.
- Life expectancy has increased.
YOU + MACHINES = lots of output.
YOU + NO MACHINES = very little output.
In this environment we would all be poor! The economy can’t produce enough. Some things wouldn’t exist at all- such as tvs. We would have to triple our hours and we still wouldn’t produce enough. That’s the way it WAS 250 years ago! The free market is the answer to this! People make profits and invest them in capital equipment so that they can produce more at a lower cost- and the increase of abundance of goods lowers the prices and increases the spending power of the dollar!
So- less time working, more goods, lower cost, more spending power.
4 comments:
Agreed! Very interesting to see the statistics!
I LOVE this post! Thank you for pointing out these facts!
L, I am on dh's phone. I love this post! Thank you, kindred spirit!
Interesting post Lauren! I can't argue with your comment that a lot of the technological advances of the last 300 years were developed by people looking to profit. However, I find it curious that you attribute so much change in the last 50 years-since it was in the after WWII that worldwide social programs really kicked off. Lyndon Johnson declared the "War on Poverty" in the '60s- and the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after WWII began earlier. Both of these were hugely influential government strategies, that really kicked off social programming- and helped reduce the number of people in poverty.
If you look earlier, say the Gilded Age, or the Roaring 20's, I'm not sure you'd see the same results.
Post a Comment