Why does it matter that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita has gone up so dramatically? After stagnating at around $500 for thousands of years, it has increased 20 fold to over $10,000 in the 200 years since the Industrial Revolution.
“Though it’s easy to sneer at national income as a shallow and materialistic measure, it correlates with every indicator of human flourishing,” notes Steven Pinker in Enlightenment Now, including … continue reading
This week we are exploring the reasons behind the incredible drop in worldwide extreme poverty: from 90% in 1800 at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to less than 10% today.
And falling.
The United Nations has set a target of “ending extreme poverty for all people everywhere” by 2030.
What accounts for this incredible drop?
Yesterday, we looked at three reasons outlined by Steven Radelet, author of The … continue reading
Today we take it for granted if we want some milk, we can walk into a convenience store and it will be waiting for us on refrigerated shelf. We know the milk won’t be diluted or tainted. The price will be something we can afford. And, the store’s owner will let us walk out with it after swiping a card, even though we’ve never met, may never see each other … continue reading
Today, most discussions about poverty involve who is to blame for it, observes Steven Pinker in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
This line of thinking is misguided, he believes.
Poverty needs no explanation.
“In a world governed by entropy and evolution, it is the default state of humankind. Matter does not arrange itself into shelter or clothing, and living things do everything they can to … continue reading
