Politicians of all stripes in virtually every country have long expressed deep concern about global poverty, especially what the World Bank calls extreme poverty — those living on $1 a day or less. But in fact, the decline in poverty is an unheralded success story, thanks mainly to freer markets around the world. As recently as 2003, nearly 35% of all the world’s inhabitants were considered poor. By 2012, even after two epic stock market meltdowns, a global financial crisis and a Great Recession, only about 12% or so of the world’s population was poor. It’s one of the great economic shifts in the history of humankind, all taking place in the space of about 20 years. And yet, it largely remains unremarked upon. How did such a thing happen? In a word, capitalism — that is, economic freedom and all it entails.
http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/yes-there-is-a-cure-for-poverty-its-called-freedom/
