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> Commoners live well in free market societies, and there's no slavery. Do you have evidence of this?

by ptah 7y ago

barry-cotter 7y ago
Infant mortality is lower for the bottom decile, almost certainly the bottom percentile in high and middle income countries now than for the very richest and most powerful before antibiotics. Calvin Coolidge’s son died of an infected blister he got from a racket playing tennis. In every continent bar Africa education, healthy lifespan and average wealth as proxied by GDP/capita have improved since WWII. Even in Africa education and health have improved, despite AIDS, and it looks like economic growth might finally take off. Some of this is due to technological advances but capitalism beats the pants off all alternative models at that, as we can see from the history of the Soviet Union, which managed to almost keep up militarily with the US while spending twice to three times as much as a proportion of GDP. Slavery is absent in all OECD countries and almost all that are substantially poorer and less economically free. Yes, we have evidence of this.
- chownie 7y ago
  I don't think looking at GDP/capita proxies quality of life at all. If you and I pay one another $100 every week we'll both be boosting GDP and doing nothing of material worth aside from paying the taxes on the exchange. I'm also not convinced that it's absent in all OECD countries given an explicit loophole allowing slavery of prisoners in the US constitution.
  - barry-cotter 7y ago
    https://ourworldindata.org/human-development-index https://ourworldindata.org/human-development-index Positive correlation between human development index and GDP per capita; also positive correlation between GDP per capita and education and health.
WalterBright 7y ago
> Do you have evidence of this? Sure. Life expectancy, height, and infant survival (all markers of standard of living) rose steadily throughout the free market 19th century in America. By WW2, Americans were the tallest people in the world.

> Commoners live well in free market societies, and there's no slavery. Do you have evidence of this?

by ptah 7y ago

> Commoners live well in free market societies, and there's no slavery. Do you have evidence of this?

Infant mortality is lower for the bottom decile, almost certainly the bottom percentile in high and middle income countries now than for the very richest and most powerful before antibiotics. Calvin Coolidge’s son died of an infected blister he got from a racket playing tennis. In every continent bar Africa education, healthy lifespan and average wealth as proxied by GDP/capita have improved since WWII. Even in Africa education and health have improved, despite AIDS, and it looks like economic growth might finally take off. Some of this is due to technological advances but capitalism beats the pants off all alternative models at that, as we can see from the history of the Soviet Union, which managed to almost keep up militarily with the US while spending twice to three times as much as a proportion of GDP. Slavery is absent in all OECD countries and almost all that are substantially poorer and less economically free. Yes, we have evidence of this.

chownie 7y ago
I don't think looking at GDP/capita proxies quality of life at all. If you and I pay one another $100 every week we'll both be boosting GDP and doing nothing of material worth aside from paying the taxes on the exchange. I'm also not convinced that it's absent in all OECD countries given an explicit loophole allowing slavery of prisoners in the US constitution.
- barry-cotter 7y ago
  https://ourworldindata.org/human-development-index https://ourworldindata.org/human-development-index Positive correlation between human development index and GDP per capita; also positive correlation between GDP per capita and education and health.

WalterBright 7y ago

> Do you have evidence of this? Sure. Life expectancy, height, and infant survival (all markers of standard of living) rose steadily throughout the free market 19th century in America. By WW2, Americans were the tallest people in the world.