Virginia Postrel has a cool column in the NY Times titled The Rich Get Rich and Poor Get Poorer. Or Do They? that takes apart the anti-capitalist claim about globalization ransacking the Third World. It’s not really so:
In 1970, global income distribution peaked at about $1,000 in today’s dollars, a common measure of poverty ($2 a day in 1985 dollars). In 1998, by contrast, the largest number of people earned about $8,000 — a standard of living equivalent to Portugal’s.
The biggest change in the picture of global poverty has come from India and China, where a genuine middle class has developed.
Postrel draws from the work of brilliant economist Xavier Sala-i-Martin. His web site is worth a visit.
Story courtesy of Glenn Reynolds.
My question (as asked on my blog): Were the Times editors dead drunk when they allowed that to be printed on their sacred pages? Or did Postrel sneak in in the middle of the night and insert it into the galleys? Hard to believe they’d voluntarily publish such a thing.