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Since 1970 the world has added about 4 billion people, I don't think the claim that "100 million" have been lifted out of poverty can be taken by itself. What

Since 1970 the world has added about 4 billion people, I don't think the claim that "100 million" have been lifted out of poverty can be taken by itself. What if 100 million have been added to the "not super poor" class while 3.9 billion have been added to the "effectively" slaves class? Not saying that's what has happened but "lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty" sounds like a focused view that ignores all else.

simonh 7y ago
I didn't say 100 million, I said hundreds of millions. That's a very cautious low ball though. That's probably the rough scale of people added to the middle class, not just raised out of poverty, in China alone. We don't need to guess what happened to the global population though, they're out there in the world. We can ask them. Just since 1990, the share of the global population living on less than $1.90 a day has fallen from 44% to about 9.5% in 2015[1]. The graphs there are broken because different studies have used different measures of poverty at different times, but the trends and absolute numbers are clear. Global poverty as a proportion of population is about 1/6th what it was in 1960. [1]https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/global-poverty-facts https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/global-...
- bakuninsbart 7y ago
  According to official statistics, China's middle class grew from 2.1% (29 million people) in 1999 to 39% (531 million people) in 2013. Average wagegrowth has been 11% between 2001 and 2015. https://chinapower.csis.org/china-middle-class/ https://chinapower.csis.org/china-middle-class/
- peteradio 7y ago
  Excellent, that paints a much clearer picture.
- pessimizer 7y ago
  > in China alone. More like in China almost entirely. Global capitalist structures take a lot of credit for improving living standards all over the world, but when you look at the numbers, it's really a very dramatic improvement in China, a country that deviates from those structures in significant ways (and is demonized for ir.)
  - spoovy 7y ago
    Not true; there have been huge reductions in poverty across South and East Asia including in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia -- all highly capitalist countries. Not to mention India which I believe last year had the highest rate of poverty reduction in the world.
jsperson 7y ago
You should check out the book Factfulness by Hans Rosling. Rosling, a now deceased Swedish doctor, makes the case that the world has improved immensely over the past two centuries. He backs it up with copious statistics from the UN and other international NPOs. Rosling also gave one of the best TED talks ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w
- ptah 7y ago
  globalization only started in the 80's
  - jsperson 7y ago
    Check out the book... included in the coverage of the past 200 years is coverage of the last 40.

simonh 7y ago

I didn't say 100 million, I said hundreds of millions. That's a very cautious low ball though. That's probably the rough scale of people added to the middle class, not just raised out of poverty, in China alone. We don't need to guess what happened to the global population though, they're out there in the world. We can ask them. Just since 1990, the share of the global population living on less than $1.90 a day has fallen from 44% to about 9.5% in 2015[1]. The graphs there are broken because different studies have used different measures of poverty at different times, but the trends and absolute numbers are clear. Global poverty as a proportion of population is about 1/6th what it was in 1960. [1]https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/global-poverty-facts https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/global-...

bakuninsbart 7y ago
According to official statistics, China's middle class grew from 2.1% (29 million people) in 1999 to 39% (531 million people) in 2013. Average wagegrowth has been 11% between 2001 and 2015. https://chinapower.csis.org/china-middle-class/ https://chinapower.csis.org/china-middle-class/
peteradio 7y ago
Excellent, that paints a much clearer picture.
pessimizer 7y ago
> in China alone. More like in China almost entirely. Global capitalist structures take a lot of credit for improving living standards all over the world, but when you look at the numbers, it's really a very dramatic improvement in China, a country that deviates from those structures in significant ways (and is demonized for ir.)
- spoovy 7y ago
  Not true; there have been huge reductions in poverty across South and East Asia including in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia -- all highly capitalist countries. Not to mention India which I believe last year had the highest rate of poverty reduction in the world.

jsperson 7y ago

You should check out the book Factfulness by Hans Rosling. Rosling, a now deceased Swedish doctor, makes the case that the world has improved immensely over the past two centuries. He backs it up with copious statistics from the UN and other international NPOs. Rosling also gave one of the best TED talks ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w

ptah 7y ago
globalization only started in the 80's
- jsperson 7y ago
  Check out the book... included in the coverage of the past 200 years is coverage of the last 40.