Progress

[andrewducker]

Some figures I just bumped into. No cite, sadly:

We live in a world where the expansion of the free market has transformed a planet of people whose daily challenge was to feed themselves, into one where we see poverty going away rapidly. In 1950, only half of Americans had indoor plumbing. Now even some of the poorest Americans have microwave ovens and television sets, let alone indoor plumbing.

Not only has the super-rich West been moving forward. In 1970, the percentage of humanity living at under $2 per day was 40%, under $1 per day was 16%. By 1998, less than 20% of humanity lived under $2 per day, and less than 7% live on under $1 per day (all measurements in 1985 dollars).

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

These changes were almost exclusively is due to technological advances, many of which were not driven by the free market and few of which required it to be implemented. For example, First World city sanitation was largely promoted by a social movement in the late 19th century.

[diffrentcolours]

Do the rates of people living at under $x per day factor in the massive rise in cost of basic amenities like power and water caused by the unrestrained free market?

[kpollock.livejournal.com]

dose this prove anything other than that inflation exists?