PROGRESSIVE MALTHUSSIANS ARE 1000% WRONG: THE WORLD IS RICHER THAN EVER - AND THE THIRD WORLD HAS GAINED THE MOST

BUSINESSWEEK;

Penn Tables provide GDP data for both 1960 and 2010, providing a 50 year window to view global economic progress. It has been considerable. Looking at absolute GDP, no country anywhere in the world for which we have data is smaller today than it was in 1960. The countries that saw the size of their economies less than double since 1960 contain just 80 million people—a little more than 1 percent of the planet’s population. A further 1 billion people lived in countries where GDP climbed by somewhere between two- and fivefold. That leaves 4.9 billion people—the considerable majority of the planet—living in countries where GDP has increased more than fivefold over 50 years. Those countries include India, with an economy nearly 10 times larger than it was in 1960, Indonesia (13 times), China (17 times), and Thailand (22 times larger than in 1960). 

... Penn World Tables ... confirm that traditional Malthusian fears of national output constrained by resources have absolutely no basis in reality anywhere. 

They also suggest that concerns over widespread ‘poverty traps’—where countries are condemned to penury and stagnation by centuries-old institutions or culture or genetics—are more a figment of economic theorists’ imaginations than major factors in real-world economic outcomes. Nearly all the planet has got a lot richer.  And there’s good reason to hope the Penn Tables update fifty years hence will suggest we don’t need the qualifier ‘nearly’ any more.

PROGRESSIVES LIKE PAUL EHRLICH AND HIS COMRADES IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAVE BEEN ATTACKING CAPITALISM AND THE FREE MARKET AND THE FIRST WORLD FOR DECADES.

THEY ARE ALL 1000% WRONG:

WHAT UPLIFTS PEOPLE FROM POVERTY IS ENGAGEMENT  WITH THE FIRST WORLD'S ECONOMY AND NOT HANDOUT AND REDISTRIBUTIONIST SCHEMES.

WHAT LIFTED INDIA AND CHINA AND INDONESIA AND THAILAND OUT OF POVERTY WAS ENGAGEMENT WITH THE BIG BAD EVIL AMERICAN CAPITALISTS.

THROW IN SOUTH KOREA, TOO:

# 39    Korea, South: PER CAPITA GDP  1950 $876.00  

South Korea has advanced into a developed economy to eventually attain a GDP per capita of $30,000 in 2010

NOT ONE NATION IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY HAS EVER LIFTED IT'S PEOPLE OUT OF POVERTY WITH SOCIALISM.

SOCIALISM IS A SHELL GAME - A PONZI SCHEME, A FRAUD.

THE ONLY WAY TO INCREASE PROSPERITY IS CAPITALISM AND THE FREE MARKET.

OBSTACLES TO BOTH INCREASE POVERTY AND HUMAN SUFFERING.

LEFTIST REGULATIONS THAT STIFLE TRADE, INNOVATION AND COMPETITION AND HAMPER  GROWTH INCREASE POVERTY.

THEREFORE:

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY, YOU HAVE TO MAKE SOCIALISM HISTORY.