this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2024
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There's fewer people in poverty now than at any point in history.
The world has always been getting better in global measures of health, food and education if you consider all of humanity.
I don’t think that’s actually true. Have the metrics for what we consider poverty changed and adapted with inflation and the perfecting of corporate wealth hoarding? “Poverty” is an ambiguous term, and relative poverty is real. That doesn’t show in a standard-line “poverty” metric. What was considered “extreme poverty” is the lowest, but that’s people living on under $1.90/day. I couldn’t even find information on that metric being updated to reflect the current high inflation and profit-explosion landscape.
Also: if you technically pull people out of poverty by outsourcing to the lowest paying, least labor regulated parts of the world, is the fact that extreme poverty went away in those areas even a good thing?
Check out Factfulness by Hans Rosling
Yes. Your prospects of a healthy life increase when going from not being able to provide for yourself to being barely able to provide for yourself by working in fantastically poor conditions.
If a sweatshop didn't provide more worker value than extreme poverty, people just wouldn't work there.
The bare minimum of improvements is still an improvement, and that we should strive for better than the bare minimum doesn't make the bare minimum worthless to the people who got it.
"Fewer people in poverty" seems unlikely.
Now, a lower percentage of people seems like a given
Statistically, it's both
Even during the Dark Ages?
Yup.
They were geographically limited and not as dark as reported
Any recommended reading?
In general or about the dark ages?
Yes
Fiction: If you’re in for a multi-book series, I recommend the Amber chronicles by Roger Zelazny.
Dark Ages related: The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751 or The Long Morning of Medieval Europe
Spiritual/Philosophical: Audiobook of The Art of Mindful Living by Thich Nhat Hanh
I’ve read the Amber Chronicles, although it’s on my re-read list. Is the Dark Ages non-fiction?
Yes
I will download it now.