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I'll ask this kind of leading question that I have my own thoughts about but I want to hear others'-- is it capitalism that is eradicating poverty?
I'll ask this kind of leading question that I have my own thoughts about but I want to hear others'-- is it capitalism that is eradicating poverty?
Capitalism is one tool in the economic toolkit. Capitalism isn't the only economic system, or even the only free-market economic system, just a very popular one. I wouldn't say a hammer builds a house, even if it is very useful. If poverty will be eliminated, my first guess is that humans will ultimately be the ones to do it.
Today, America's poor have a better quality of life than medieval kings.
Are we transitioning to post-scarcity economy?
[1] https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Price_(episode)
It’s incredible how wording can be confusing to different readers. The HN title of this post is currently “the end of poverty has just begun” which made me think “just” = “recently”. So I thought the article would be about something that has indicated that the rate of poverty reduction has increased. The URL says “history-of-poverty-has-just-begun” which made me think this is an article about historiography of povert…
But, excepting short-lasting wars and recessions, worldwide poverty has always been in decline: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty https://data.worldbank.org/topic/11
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Capitalism is one tool in the economic toolkit. Capitalism isn't the only economic system, or even the only free-market economic system, just a very popular one. I wouldn't say a hammer builds a house, even if it is very useful. If poverty will be eliminated, my first guess is that humans will ultimately be the ones to do it.
Who else would be the ones to eliminate poverty? Fish?
It’s incredible how wording can be confusing to different readers. The HN title of this post is currently “the end of poverty has just begun” which made me think “just” = “recently”. So I thought the article would be about something that has indicated that the rate of poverty reduction has increased. The URL says “history-of-poverty-has-just-begun” which made me think this is an article about historiography of povert…
> a better post title would be something like “Poverty is only now starting to decline” But, excepting short-lasting wars and recessions, worldwide poverty has always been in decline: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty https://data.worldbank.org/topic/11
Dr. Jason Hickel has—I think—a pretty fair criticism of these graphs [1], that I'll try to summarize here: 1. Treating "poverty" as a binary "yes/no" thing, where having > $1.90/day suddenly alleviates you from poverty seems like a bit of a stretch. $1.90/day is probably way too low a number to cover adequate nutrition, shelter, and basic human needs. 2. While the percentage of people in poverty by this measure has d…
How so? Under communism, China ran itself deeply into the ground and tens of millions of people starved to death.
Economic reform changed that, in a straightforward triumph of capitalism.
When one of the major stimuli to the period of economic reform is the discovery that a little village notable for not starving to death is doing it by virtue of illegal enclosure of what was supposed to be public land, supported by a blood oath of secrecy because private landownership is so illegal... you think the takeaway is that China's modern success comes from their communist economic regime?
It is always nice to see such narratives based on robust data. For similar stories backed by data I can also recommend the book "Factfulnes" by Hans Rosling [1]. When we talk about basic needs, our global community is making tremendous progress. At the same time, we should not forget that the same system that abolishes poverty also creates enormous inequality, which not only makes people unhappier, but also leads to…
The end of poverty began in the US around 1800, when the specter of famine was finally eliminated. Throughout the 19th century, Americans grew in height and life expectancy, resulting in America's poor being the richest poor people in the world. Today, America's poor have a better quality of life than medieval kings.