US Capitalism: The Most Remarkable Achievement In Human History Against Poverty

[Wilikon]

Everybody’s featuring their “graphs and charts of the year,” like The Atlantic and the Washington Post (be sure to see Vice-President Joe Biden’s “Graph of the Year” on Amtrak ridership). Well, the chart above could perhaps qualify as the “chart of the century” because it illustrates one of the most remarkable achievements in human history: the 80% reduction in world poverty in only 36 years, from 26.8% of the world’s population living on $1 or less (in 1987 dollars) in 1970 to only 5.4% in 2006. (Source: The 2009 NBER working paper “Parametric Estimations of the World Distribution of Income,” by economists Maxim Pinkovskiy (MIT) and Xavier Sala-i-Martin (Columbia University).

What accounts for this great achievement that you never hear about? AEI president Arthur Brooks explains in the video below, summarized here:

It turns out that between 1970 and 2010 the worst poverty in the world – people who live on one dollar a day or less – that has decreased by 80 percent (see chart above). You never hear about that.

It’s the greatest achievement in human history, and you never hear about it.

80 percent of the world’s worst poverty has been eradicated in less than 40 years. That has never, ever happened before.

So what did that? What accounts for that? United Nations? US foreign aid? The International Monetary Fund? Central planning? No.

It was globalization, free trade, the boom in international entrepreneurship. In short, it was the free enterprise system, American style, which is our gift to the world.

I will state, assert and defend the statement that if you love the poor, if you are a good Samaritan, you must stand for the free enterprise system, and you must defend it, not just for ourselves but for people around the world. It is the best anti-poverty measure ever invented.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss80iuEBC6A


http://www.allenskillicorn.com/2653/greatest-achievement-human-history-never-hear/

[Carlton Banks]

Wonder how much the purchasing power of $1 declined on the same timescale  

[Aruut]

Wonder how much the purchasing power of $1 declined on the same timescale  

^ Exactly this.

http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/images/charts/Annual_Inflation/Cumulative_Inflation_by_Decade_sm.jpg

[freet0pian]

Wonder how much the purchasing power of $1 declined on the same timescale  

^ Exactly this.

Maybe the inflation isn't correctly calculated but: "...world’s population living on $1 or less (in 1987 dollars)...".

Wonder how many actually read through the posts they are commenting on

[Carlton Banks]

Wonder how much the purchasing power of $1 declined on the same timescale  

^ Exactly this.

Maybe the inflation isn't correctly calculated but: "...world’s population living on $1 or less (in 1987 dollars)...".

Wonder how many actually read through the posts they are commenting on

Ah, well that makes it more interesting. The line in the graph drops dramatically between 1970 and 1987, then changes to a far slower pace. So the first chart is more useful alongside the purchasing power chart.

I wonder what the first chart would look like if it took 1970 purchasing power as it's start point? Probably wouldn't depict quite the same "success" factor.

[Hawker]

Wonder how much the purchasing power of $1 declined on the same timescale  

^ Exactly this.

Maybe the inflation isn't correctly calculated but: "...world’s population living on $1 or less (in 1987 dollars)...".

Wonder how many actually read through the posts they are commenting on

Ah, well that makes it more interesting. The line in the graph drops dramatically between 1970 and 1987, then changes to a far slower pace. So the first chart is more useful alongside the purchasing power chart.

I wonder what the first chart would look like if it took 1970 purchasing power as it's start point? Probably wouldn't depict quite the same "success" factor.

It depends what you call success.  People who could not afford basic essentials in 1970s have mobile phones now.  Most of those people will never hold a dollar bill in their lives.  But they have been lifted out of grotesque poverty by international trade and economic liberalisation.

[nastybit]

Wonder how much the purchasing power of $1 declined on the same timescale 

^ Exactly this.

http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/images/charts/Annual_Inflation/Cumulative_Inflation_by_Decade_sm.jpg

Exactly this!! I was reading and I was thinking WTF is he talking about, $1 is worth nothing today!
The graphs are exactly the same on different direction, nothing changed, actually it should go up because the population increased

[Wilikon]

Wonder how much the purchasing power of $1 declined on the same timescale 

^ Exactly this.

Exactly this!! I was reading and I was thinking WTF is he talking about, $1 is worth nothing today!
The graphs are exactly the same on different direction, nothing changed, actually it should go up because the population increased

So contraception is the solution to fight poverty?

[Hawker]

Wonder how much the purchasing power of $1 declined on the same timescale  

^ Exactly this.

Exactly this!! I was reading and I was thinking WTF is he talking about, $1 is worth nothing today!
The graphs are exactly the same on different direction, nothing changed, actually it should go up because the population increased

So contraception is the solution to fight poverty?

You are sort of wasting your time.  Your chart shows that things are getting better for most people in the world.  A lot of posters in this forum don't want to hear that so they reply saying "inflation" "population" and a few other excuses to be pessimistic.  

Here's a few more charts that cause unhappiness: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/24/these-31-charts-will-destroy-your-faith-in-humanity/

This just doesn't seem to be a forum where good news is welcome.  A lot of people fantasise that we are in the Final Days, that the state will collapse and that we will all live in basements and use ammo as the ultimate currency.  Being told that life is getting better and better really doesn't make them happy

[Wilikon]

Wonder how much the purchasing power of $1 declined on the same timescale  

^ Exactly this.

Exactly this!! I was reading and I was thinking WTF is he talking about, $1 is worth nothing today!
The graphs are exactly the same on different direction, nothing changed, actually it should go up because the population increased

So contraception is the solution to fight poverty?

You are sort of wasting your time.  Your chart shows that things are getting better for most people in the world.  A lot of posters in this forum don't want to hear that so they reply saying "inflation" "population" and a few other excuses to be pessimistic.  

Here's a few more charts that cause unhappiness: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/24/these-31-charts-will-destroy-your-faith-in-humanity/

This just doesn't seem to be a forum where good news is welcome.  A lot of people fantasise that we are in the Final Days, that the state will collapse and that we will all live in basements and use ammo as the ultimate currency.  Being told that life is getting better and better really doesn't make them happy

So... pessimism is driving the price of bitcoin up? NNooooo!!! 

[Carlton Banks]

Bitcoin is a bet on collapse, etc.

[Wilikon]

Mankind is organic, fluid, predatory like its many societies through out History has proven. A form of communication replacing a type of service does not equate to the fall of all man made societies, but to improve upon.

I guess I chose to see a half full glass 

[Carlton Banks]

Mankind is organic, fluid, predatory like its many societies through out History has proven. A form of communication replacing a type of service does not equate to the fall of all man made societies, but to improve upon.

I guess I chose to see a half full glass 

To clarify, I was parodying the doom-mongers!

I think it's often said that smart people make good money in recessions, and so it follows that changes of the financial/monetary order can present opportunities as much as they wipe some people out. It's ebb and flow, and it's happened fairly consistently throughout history. Some major changes are a calamity, and others are not such a shock event. The cryptocurrency change has the potential to be more orderly than the calamities of the past, as the change is being widely discussed before it's necessary. Although I expect at least some turbulence in even the most orderly changeover, and that's without major economic events forcing the issue. Let's hope for (and encourage) the former.

[Hawker]

Bitcoin is a bet on collapse, etc.

Bitcoin is a bet on the theory of evolution applying to currencies.  A new type of currency has emerged from the Internet and we want to see what its niche is.  There is not going to be a collapse - while being poor sucks, the world economy has never been better.

[AnonyMint]

The OP and the link provided by Hawker disagree, as the former says 5% and the latter says 20% live in absolute poverty. The chart in the OP probably uses liar government statistics for inflation.

For example, one third or more of India's 1 billion population can't get proper nutrition. The government recently started to subsidize food, and this will drive India into bankruptcy over the next few years as the current account deficit as a percentage of GDP is rising above the "point of no return" spiraling failure. They installed an IMF alumni as the central bank governor to put this Communism into effect. Heck you can still buy a child in India. Slavery is very real and takes many forms. See below.

Although we lifted the material lives of humanity with technology, i.e. even people living on a few $ per day have a smartphone and ride motorized transportation, the power vacuum of democracy keeps the world in slavery. For example, in most countries the working class can not stop working else they can't pay their daily needs and debts. In the developed world we have massive debts to pay, i.e. our houses costs 10 times more than they should because we pulled aggregate demand forward by 30 years with 30 year mortgages. In the developing world, they spend 30% or more of their income just on food, and have much lower personal debt levels but their savings has been wasted with super high corporate debt levels:

Outsourcing is peaking:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130206035650/http://www.mpettis.com/2012/10/27/when-the-growth-model-changes-abandon-the-correlations/#comment-18898
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2550615 (decline to 2% for 2013 reached as predicted)

Chinese corporate debt is the highest in the world as a percentage of GDP:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130206035650/http://www.mpettis.com/2012/10/27/when-the-growth-model-changes-abandon-the-correlations/#comment-18916

My analysis of the Philippines predated the Forbes article:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130624091508/http://www.mpettis.com/2013/02/14/what-ill-be-watching-in-2013/#comment-21493
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessecolombo/2013/11/21/heres-why-the-philippines-economic-miracle-is-really-a-bubble-in-disguise/

On top of that, these charts will take a massive adjustment to the worse, once the Madmax outcome hits before 2020. Refer to the linked thread above.

Socialists love to refer to myopic statistics over limited timeframes which obscure the reality of the debt-slavery and power vacuum referred to lovingly as "democracy".

And yes if we realize that the power vacuum and the expansion of debt-slavery is at its source generated by the ability of the State to tax and have a monopoly on force, then a more anonymous form of decentralized altcoin might be a technology that again lifts the people of the world higher.

Only technology lifts the people, while government tries to waste all the gains.

The hubris and self-importance of the boomers who are so proud of their $150 trillion global debt bubble, with $1000 trillion of unfunded social liabilities, and another $1000 trillion of sovereign bond bubble credit swap derivatives.

[Lethn]

And there are people who wonder why I hate hyperinflation so much, yes well done, America benefited the poor! At the expense of your own and their children and/or grandchildren you fucking halfwit! Now go have a group masturbation session with Ben Bernanke in retirement and die of old age not knowing how much you've fucked us all over.

grrr >_< didn't need this reminder first thing in the morning of how I need to work twice as longer than my parents to pay off government debt.

Edit: Wait a minute, 1987? That might have been when the hyperinflation ended, I've got to do some research.

[AnonyMint]

And there are people who wonder why I hate hyperinflation so much, yes well done...

There hasn't been any hyperinflation in the current US dollar. And inflation wasn't the problem (click that link to read the math proof). Please try to understand that the problem is centralized, top-down control due to the power vacuum of government, and stop conflating necessary debasement with the true problem.

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/11/21/hyperinflation-definition/

The raw fact is it has NEVER been the money that is the problem. It is the government.

HYPERINFLATION is not 25% or 50%. It is a rate of inflation from which there is no return. EVERY major empire has collapse from DEFLATION, never HYPERINFLATION because government hunt down their citizens and that causes money to hoard and the economy to collapse. This is why unemployment among the youth in Europe is over 60%. Ask them is this inflation or deflation?

[player01]

Capitalism has raised the standard of living for most of the people on the planet. Goodbye capitalism, we will only really miss you when you are gone.

[Wilikon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A

For the youngest among the bitcoiners here. Those 2 could debate non stop without calling the other one a denier.

[practicaldreamer]

America benefited the poor! At the expense of your own and their children and/or grandchildren you fucking halfwit! Now go have a group masturbation session with Ben Bernanke in retirement and die of old age not knowing how much you've fucked us all over.

+1

     Apologies to all the sane citizens of the US frequenting this forum - but I find the idea that, given its absolutely appalling take on international relations and foreign policy (being a heady mix of the illicit financing of dictatorial junta's, rapacious and oil thirsty conquest, anti domino effect occupations and, of late, sponsoring groups they at home label terrorists in the hope that said groups will do the job for them on non co-operative foreign governments) - all done in the name of "Freedom and Democracy") - I find the idea that the US is somehow to be given the glory for alleviating world poverty ( to an extent that may or may not be imaginary anyhow) absolutely delusional on the grandest scale.
 
     Jesus wept 

Please don't read this that I am anti US because I am not. Yes, I believe that the ruling elite therein have a lot to answer for in this world, but I don't for one minute hold the average US citizen responsible for this anymore than I would blame my grandfather for Britains Imperialist past.

  But "US Capitalism: The Most Remarkable Achievement In Human History Against Poverty" ? 

   Get a grip here.