Thanks to Capitalism…
As a result of the home invasion of some friends I posted the following comment to my Facebook status over the weekend:
"Words my parents did not have to express when they were young in The Bahamas? "Be safe"."
Crime is on the minds of so many Bahamians today it's almost stultifying.
One of the comments the status solicited was "If this is progress, I'd much rather not have it!"
I must admit I am bemused by comments like this because I can't see how progress has anything to do with crime. And I don't think the reverse - crime is the result of progress - is true either. So it prompted me to say just that and point out that by "so many measures life has improved dramatically."
Of course I was immediately challenged that I must be drinking "spiked" kool aid.
A quick read to substantiate my view is this 2014 article by Sam Collins at iea.org.uk but here's a quote for you in the meantime:
"Over the past fifty years, and particularly the last thirty as liberal economic reforms have been enacted across the world, the fall in poverty levels has improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people. More than 500 million Chinese have been lifted from poverty since Deng Xiaoping’s enactment of the Four Modernisations starting in 1978 as the economy has surged. Today the GDP of Mozambique is 60 per cent larger than it was in 2008. India, Vietnam, Peru and Rwanda have all experienced the benefits of reforms to their economies, although some still have room for reform and growth."
If after reading that you continue to believe that Capitalism has made things "worse for humanity and the environment" and would honestly like to pursue the subject, I'd highly recommend a couple books for you.
First is It's Getting Better All The Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years by Stephen Moore & Julian L. Simon
"No matter what the variable -- life expectancy, wealth, leisure time, education, safety, gender and racial equality, freedom -- the world is a vastly better place today than it was a century ago, say co-authors Stephen Moore and the late Julian Simon in It's Getting Better all the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years."
Second is The Improving State of the World: Why We're Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet by Indur M. Goklany:
"Poverty, hunger, malnutrition, child labor, illiteracy and unsafe water ceased to be global norms; infant mortality has never been lower; and we live longer and healthier lives. Further, Goklany’s research demonstrates that global agricultural productivity is up, food prices are down, hunger and malnutrition have dropped worldwide, public health has improved, mortality rates are down, and life expectancies are up."
Find out more about the improving state of humanity here...
