The “Good News” article series aims to highlight lesser-known stories often overlooked by the media, which tends to focus on more sensational, negative news.
There are days when we all feel that the World is a pretty bad place, that nobody cares about other people, and that it’s only worsening. Some people might have extreme-left or extreme-right tendencies, and when days like these strike them, they are willing to blame “globalization” or immigrants, which in turn does make the World a worse place. So, it is a paradox > that thinking the World is imperfect can lead to making the World terrible.
But is the World really, objectively bad? Is it possible that the World is objectively improving, and only people are getting more sensitive to the problems that might bother them? Thanks to the Internet, which enables communication with others like themselves, they project their imaginary problems onto the World. Of course, much more must be done, but in this post, I want to argue that compared to the past, we live in better times but are somehow unaware of it.
As many factors can influence one’s view of the World, we’ll split this theme into several posts.
First: a DISCLAIMER: this post series will in absolutely NO WAY argue that since things are getting better, we should stop helping the poor, or curing diseases or giving animals more rights or being even more intolerant of rapists. Just because things improve does not mean the work is done- far from it. The only point this series tries to make is that things are indeed moving in the right direction and that the forces behind these changes (globalization, democracy, science, vaccines) are improving the World and not hurting it.
So, let’s begin. In this first post, let’s tackle the most significant argument about the World being imperfect. You can hear this argument almost every day, probably even from your friends—people are dying of hunger and malnutrition, people are living in extreme Poverty.
Extreme Poverty
Extreme Poverty is still present, but things are getting better. Please take a look, for example, at this chart from Our World in Data.
So what does this graph mean, and how was it calculated? Well, it was calculated using purchasing power Parity or PPP. PPP means adjusting for price levels in different countries, which means using a consistent unit. To quote from Wikipedia:
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is measured by finding the values (in USD) of a basket of consumer goods that are present in each country (such as orange juice, pencils, etc.). If that basket costs $100 in the US and $200 in the United Kingdom, then the purchasing power parity exchange rate is 1:2.
This graph represents the number of people who have experienced Poverty over the past two centuries. It is a rough representation since accurate data was available only after 1981, so the data from before was reconstructed using a different measure. Still, the trend is visible. It has been in a steady decline. But the most extraordinary accomplishments have come in the last 30 years, with the share of people living in extreme Poverty divided by 4!
To quote directly from Our World In Data, “Poverty falling continuously over the last two centuries. This is even more remarkable when considering that the population increased 7-fold over the same time. In a world without economic growth, an increase in the population would result in less and less income for everyone.” – Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2017) – ‘Global Extreme Poverty’. Published online at OurWorldInData.org.
What this means is that the World does have a bit of a reason to be proud—the population has increased sevenfold, but more and more people are not living in extreme Poverty.
Take a look at this chart, which wonderfully illustrates what the World was up to concerning population growth and the number of people living in extreme Poverty:
Here you can see that despite the world population increasing, extreme Poverty was mainly in decline.
But why should capitalism care about people living in Poverty? Well, to put it simply, the more spending power people have, the more they will spend. Simple, right? What this means is that when Poverty is reduced, everybody wins. People certainly win, and as a matter of fact, so do corporations. When people have money, they buy things. It’s not rocket science.
How else can we display this data so that maybe politicians see the need to invest a bit in international aid? Let us take a look at this analysis. Do you see how much money was needed before lifting the incomes of all people in extreme Poverty to the poverty line? Do you see how much less it is now? It has reduced by 300 billion. This data is generated by multiplying the poverty gap index by the poverty line and total population. So, both the incidence and intensity of Poverty have been reduced.
So, it is clear that the world is improving regarding several people and the situation of extreme Poverty on the world level. The following chart shows how extreme Poverty has been reduced in the World by region.
One important point is that “no matter what extreme poverty line we choose, the share of people below that line has declined globally. “
The future?
I have found that the World Bank Group has declared a goal of ending extreme Poverty by 2030. This is an essential goal because Poverty is linked to Life expectancy and education. People who live in extreme Poverty have lousy health and shorter lives. Poverty is also connected to education, meaning that the less education is developed, the more likely Poverty is.
Looking at previous trends, this all seems very much possible. In effect, there will be fewer and fewer people who are not adequately educated, fewer and fewer people who needlessly live shorter lives, and fewer and fewer people who suffer.
So, the World is getting objectively better regarding extreme Poverty. There are enough reasons for optimism.
Main Source:
Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2017) – ‘Global Extreme Poverty’. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty/
Further reading:
- Poverty on Wikipedia
- Gates Notes – 2015 letter