Hamish In Auckland: America: " In the gulags and internment camps frozen faces in nameless ranks "

AEI Ideas ( American Enterprise Institute ) blogs

Chart of the greatest and most remarkable achievement in human history, and one you probably never heard about

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).

WTF. " ..from 26.8% of the world’s population living on $1 or less (in 1987 dollars) in 1970 to only 5.4% in 2006." That has got to be the most convoluted comparison I have ever come across. Actually I suspect that this is more about Chinese and Indian economic progress than some fantastic achievement on the part of humanity.

What accounts for this great achievement that you never hear about?

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.

Yes there is a lot to be said for living on $2 or $3 per day. This is bloody meaningless bullshit. According to this shit only 5% of the world's population now live in poverty.

Map of world poverty by country, showing percentage of population living on less than $2 per day. Based on the 2009 UN Human Development Report.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2006 figures, 87.72 earning less than $1.25 per day, 95.15 earning less than $2.00 per day.

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.

Not only has it never happened before it hasn't bloody happened.

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

At this point you should be expecting things to take a large turn for the worse.

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.

This clown has clearly never read Nickel and Dimed. On (Not) Getting By in America. Nore would it appear has the author of this drivel any concept of the history of free enterprise. As for America standing for free trade I have never heard anything so laughable in my life.

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.

Just fuck off right now Dr. Mark J. Perry ( author ) who clearly is the mouthpiece of the AEI.