I have written many times that if a person reads Scripture
he/she cannot avoid the observation that God has great compassion for the
poor. Therefore, we Christians should do
the same and we should be very excited about recent news.
The June 1st-7th issue of The
Economist (2013) has both an editorial and an article about improvements in
worldwide poverty. The UN has released
numbers that show world poverty has dropped from 43% of the world’s population
to 21%, during the period 1990 to 2010.
This is astounding. Nearly one
billion people in twenty years have risen above the extreme poverty line of
$1.25 income per day.
The Economist, surely not a conservative periodical, goes on
to say that the biggest factor in producing this decline is economic
growth. In fact that is bigger than all
other factors combined. Nearly all the
poverty reduction comes from Asian countries turning to capitalism and free
markets. Since China has taken to
capitalism, 680 million Chinese have risen from the horrific daily life on less
than $1.25 per day.
If we were serious about helping the poor, we would work day
and night toward the goal of instituting capitalism in poverty stricken
countries. In Africa poverty is raging
because, since the decline of colonialism, African governments have listened to
liberal economists who tout big governments and massive regulation. We have been told that poor countries need
more aid but The Economist points out that aid to poor countries is nearly
inconsequential. “…it is hard to argue
that aid had much to do with halving poverty.”
Many Christians have been led astray by
anti-capitalists. Let’s point out the
facts to them.
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