Notwithstanding my efforts (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), not everyone supports capitalism.

Based on hundreds of conversations over the past five decades, I think the top objection to free markets is that poor people don’t benefit (or even that poor people are hurt by capitalism).

Today’s column (building on what I wrote in 2013, 2017, 2020, 2021, and 2022) hopefully will show that economic liberty is the best way of helping the less fortunate.

Let’s start with this chart, which shows a very strong correlation between income growth for poor people and average people.

In other words, a rising tide does lift all boats.

Next we have a chart showing that the net worth of the bottom-50 percent in the United States has climbed to record highs.

Why is this chart important?

Because the economy is not a fixed pie. Elon Musk’s net worth is immense, but that doesn’t prevent the rest of us from becoming wealthier.

And even if our wealth is only a tiny blip compared to billionaires, it’s good for all of us to accumulate assets.

Now let’s return to international data by looking at the incredible progress that has occurred in all regions.

Some regions (and some countries) have done a better job than others, but the overall trend is clear.

As capitalism has spread and trade has expanded, poverty is becoming a smaller and smaller problem.

Let’s close by looking at some excerpts from a column in Reason by Veronique de Rugy.

How do we actually lift people out of poverty? The data have never left much question. The answer is economic growth. …Stated plainly, every country that has gotten richer overall has also reduced poverty. More importantly, no poor country has ever achieved decent living standards without first getting genuinely richer. …the relationship is so reliable that it’s more like a physical law than a social-science finding. …Two centuries ago, roughly three-quarters of the world could not afford more than tiny living spaces, enough food to avoid malnutrition, and some minimum heating capacity. Since then, the share of people in this type of poverty has fallen dramatically. The reason is an explosion in production that began with the Industrial Revolution and has yet to stop. …the most important question for poor countries is not who gains most from growth. It is whether growth happens at all. …Countries don’t get stuck in extreme poverty because the world has ignored them. They get stuck because they do not produce. And they do not produce because the institutional conditions that make production possible—secure property rights, the rule of law, open markets, protection from predatory government—are largely absent. …many supposed poverty fighters are blind to this reality.

Why are “supposed poverty fighters…blind to this reality”?

Because too many of them think their job is to fight inequality, as noted in my Eighth Theorem of Government.

If they put their focus on really fighting poverty, we’ll see much better results (see  here, here, here, and here).