Poverty reduced

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"We are in the midst of the fastest period of poverty reduction the world has ever seen. The global poverty rate, which stood at 25 percent in 2005, is ticking downwards at one to two percentage points a year, lifting around 70 million people . . out of destitution annually. Advances in human progress on such a scale are unprecedented, yet remain almost universally unacknowledged."

Western governments for decades pursued more aid and debt relief, but economic growth was lackluster. "Global poverty [came] to be seen as a constant . . [but t]hankfully for the world’s poor, this logic turned out to be flawed."

What seems to have been vital to new prosperity for billions of people is the global spread of capitalism - yes, capitalism.

photo: prosperity.com

"We’re on the cusp of an age of mass development, which will see the world transformed from being mostly poor to mostly middle class . . fundamentally it’s a story about billions of people around the world finally having the chance to build better lives for themselves and their children. 

"We should consider ourselves fortunate to be alive at such a remarkable moment."

(cont'd tomorrow)