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This is the greatest lie about capitalism you will ever hear, and we're going to take it to pieces.

And it is the idea that capitalism is the cure for poverty, that capitalism has lifted billions of humans out of

objects, scroller and poverty and insecurity, that as an engine of innovation and entrepreneurship,

that in doing all of its magical things, it creates wealth, which doesn't just end up in the pockets of the rich,

but benefits all of us. And that is human progress driven by capitalism.

It's best summed up, or eloquently, I would say, in the words of the Russian chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov,

capitalism is the greatest destroyer of poverty in world history, and socialism is greatest creator, rivaling war.

That's a claim you'll hear over and over again. Capitalism has rescued billions from poverty, hallelujah.

Now, consider first the work of Jason Hickel. He's an economic anthropologist, and he wrote a really fascinating essay,

which really partly takes this to pieces, to be honest with you.

So, he notes this widely circulated graph showing the proportion of people living in poverty has fallen from 94% in 1820 to just 10% today.

Wow! Incredible! Look what capitalism has done! No wonder it was shared by the likes of Bill Gates,

showing the wonders of capitalism, and showing why critics like myself are so wrong-headed.

Now, the first point Hickel made is that real data on poverty has only been collected since 1981,

so if you go back before then, you're in pretty dodgy grounds. It's not actually accurate data.

You're not comparing like and like either, because for much of history, much of humanity didn't use or depend on money.

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