Capitalism's 100% Success Rate
Arnold Kling touts the free market over central planning:If we take into account the factors that have retarded poverty
reduction, then we can argue that, by overcoming those factors, capitalism
accounts for even more than 100 percent of poverty reduction. That is, if world
poverty has fallen from 90 percent to 20 percent over the past 200 years, then
capitalism would have reduced it by even more were it not for the retarding
factors.
Ironically, the biggest factor retarding the capitalist solution to
poverty may well be the crusade to end poverty using conscious planning.
Certainly if one includes among the planned solutions to poverty the experiment
with Communism (and I see no reason why it ought to be excluded), then the case
against intentional anti-poverty efforts is rather compelling. Simply compare
poverty in North Korea with that in South Korea, for example.
This makes even more sense, when you consider how Roosevelt's New Deal expanded an economic Depression to last the entire 1930's, only to be wiped away by America Big Business during and after World War 2.