Poverty is decreasing everywhere
Aug 23, 2017, 5:05 PM
Poverty around the globe is obviously tragic. I’ve never experienced poverty at a serious level. I have gone to bed hungry but only for a few days at a time when I was young.
But the rhetoric around the global increase of poverty is not accurate. There is a brilliant study in “Our World in Data” that says economic growth has transformed the world and continually takes millions out of poverty.
Due to economic growth, opportunities for work expand and individual economies have expanded. This is a result of the capacity of the human mind, creativity, and hard work.
Our first president, the founder of our country died of a throat infection. But due to human ingenuity, even the poor don’t have to die from simple infections. This is due to economic growth, so that pills to solve deadly diseases can cost pennies.
In 1981, 44 percent of the population lived in absolute poverty. Within 32 years it has gone down to 11 percent of the population living in extreme poverty.
Every day, 137,000 fewer people have to live in extreme poverty. But we have huge corporations who want to change and slow down this progress; companies like Monsanto.
If governments get involved in every aspect of our lives, like they did in Venezuela, the poverty numbers will reverse and put more people in worse positions.
As always, please listen to the full audio clip for complete context.
