In 1798, 95 percent of the world lived in poverty. Today, less than 10 percent do, in spite of the world's population growing by 700 percent in that same time.
The common thought among young people is that this 700 percent population growth is going to overpopulate the earth. But given the number of people in poverty, it looks like population growth is actually good for poverty – more people means more brains, which means more ideas, inventions, and innovations.
This week on Words and Numbers, Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan talk about how and why the world is improving despite widespread negativity towards the idea of a growing world population, and why that negativity persists regardless of the prosperity we see every day.
Watch below or on YouTube, or listen to the podcast here on SoundCloud.
For more on this, see:
- Cataloging Progress from 1975: Using Sears.com's Selection on New Year's Day 2013
- World Poverty Rate to Fall Below 10% for the First Time
- Did We Really Reduce Extreme Poverty by Half in 30 Years?
- How a Free Market Deals with Overpopulation
And for research, see:
Antony Davies
Dr. Antony Davies is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Fellow at FEE, associate professor of economics at Duquesne University, and co-host of the podcast, Words & Numbers.
James R. Harrigan
James R. Harrigan is and the F.A. Hayek Distinguished Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education and Senior Editor at the American Institute for Economic Research. He is also co-host of the Words & Numbers podcast.