Rich Lowry at National Review writes about the good news just released by a United Nations Children’s Fund report, which finds that deaths of young children worldwide have hit an all-time low. This coincides with research by the World Bank "reporting global poverty rates had fallen as part of an extraordinary worldwide economic boom."
According to the World Bank, developing countries have averaged 3.9 percent growth since 2000, contributing “to rapidly falling poverty rates in all developing regions over the past few years.” In 1990, 1.25 billion people lived on less than $1 a day. In 2004, less than a billion did, even though world population increased 20 percent in the interim.
Furthermore:
China and India have led the way in growth, with the fastest- and second-fastest-growing major economies in the world. Thus, what have been sinks of human misery on a vast scale for centuries are becoming more livable. China accounted for almost all the recent drop in people living on less than $1 a day, experiencing a decline of 300 million since 1990. India has seen its mortality rate for children under the age of 5 decline from 123 per 1,000 in 1990 to 74 in 2005.
Basically, economic growth can save millions of lives. Of course, India and China have liberalized their economy over the last couple of decades – leading to such tremendous advances. The best way for people to "lift themselves out of poverty" is not more government programs, but an infusion of capitalism. According to the World Bank report, such economic growth in emerging countries can be attributed to:
“further integration into world markets, better functioning internal markets and rising demand for many commodities.”
Take note all you anti-globalists and anti-capitalists: the cure to international poverty is the very medicine you despise.
Rich is right: it’s not about foreign aid, or penalizing wealthy countries. As Milton Friedman noted, the way to prosperity and political freedom is by following the path of economic freedom.