Thread by @Noahpinion

1/I talk to a lot of socialists who are very convinced that material deprivation is rising, both in America and around the world. And that this is a consequence of neoliberalism's intellectual dominance.

Wrong, and wrong.

2/First, let's talk about America. Child poverty has risen a lot, right?

Nope. It's at an all-time low. theatlantic.com/amp/article/54…

3/Why has child poverty in America fallen so dramatically?

Because of government. Because of redistribution.

4/Next, homelessness. There are more and more homeless people on the streets, right?

Nope. Homelessness has fallen a lot in America. theatlantic.com/business/archi…

5/And why did this decline happen?

Because of government. Because of redistribution.

6/In fact, homelessness throughout America is still falling (though what remains is becoming more concentrated in big cities). governing.com/topics/health-…

7/Now let's talk about the rest of the world. Colonialism has impoverished most of the world for the benefit of a few rich countries, right?

Not recently, nope.

8/Decolonization eventually led to a dramatic burst of growth in poor countries that is CLOBBERING world poverty.

9/Just look at that graph. Look at how the # of people in absolute poverty rises smoothly until colonialism ends, then begins to fall relentlessly.

Decolonization worked.

10/OK, but "absolute poverty" is just a stupid number, right? What about all the kids dying??

FAR FEWER KIDS ARE DYING.

11/How about people going hungry?

In all regions except the Middle East, hunger has fallen enormously since the end of colonialism. Africa and East Asia have seen the biggest drops.

12/This is happening due to two forces:

1. Growth, which grows the pie

2. Redistribution, which makes sure everyone can have some pie.

13/In Latin America, for example, redistribution is making a big dent in inequality (not just absolute poverty): papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

14/Decolonization and global growth have turned a 2-peaked global income distribution into a 1-peaked distribution. Here's 1988 vs. 2011.

15/So socialists are wrong to think material deprivation has increased. It has fallen, and is still falling.

But they're falling because of redistribution and the end of colonialism.

16/In other words, socialists are wrong to think that the world has gotten worse, and they're also wrong to think that free-market capitalism and colonialism have dominated the world in recent decades.

17/In large part, we've done what many socialists wanted - ended colonialism and increased redistribution - and the results have been great.

18/Obviously the world still has plenty of economic problems.

But globally, and even in America, our approach isn't failing. It's just not working as fast as we'd like.

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