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Topic subjectRE: Yup, we'd be feeding the world by now if technology was the answer...
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12756833&mesg_id=12756975
12756975, RE: Yup, we'd be feeding the world by now if technology was the answer...
Posted by Willong, Thu Mar-19-15 09:47 PM
"We" have the resources because of capitalism.

Thousands of years of grinding poverty and subsistence farming for >95% of the population has given way to prosperity for a growing number due to increased production from capital accumulation and the division of labor. Two things that happen spontaneously when property rights are recognized and societies respect hard work and success.

Capitalism is two things. Property rights, and voluntary exchange. Capitalism is not crony capitalism.

Capitalism has meant an increasing population. Before capitalism, man's production was enough to sustain only a few million. After capitalism for only 200 years (less in most of the world), world population is atmospheric while the percentage of those starving is much, much less than the percentage starving when there were only a few million.

If you look at the poor societies, it is those that have never successfully adopted a private property regime, and instead use a model dominated by political factions and cronyism, these are symptoms of socialism and mercantilism. The most economically free are indeed the most prosperous.