Reddit reviews Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future

Thanks! I'm reading Johan Norberg's book Progress right now, and might just do a viz or two relating to the content!

Progress - Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future by Cato Institute fellow Johan Norberg. Honestly one of the best books I've ever read, Norberg goes through the myraid ways the world today is undeniably better than it has ever been, and the incredible progress that free-market capitalism and globalisation have made in improving the lives of everyone. He backs everything up with firm empirical data but is also excellent at providing a human narrative around advances.

The Economist reviews it here: http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21706231-human-life-has-improved-many-ways-both-recently-according-swedish-economic

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Progress-Reasons-Look-Forward-Future/dp/1780749503

Genre would be economic/glorious neoliberal triumphs history

>making the richest richer and the middle class and below poorer

The wages of the poorest are rising the fastest.

Blue collar (typically middle class and below) wages are rising faster than white collar wages - 4.2% percent for “sales and related”, 3.7% percent for “production, transportation, and material moving” workers, 3.4% for “trade, transportation, and utilities”, and 4.1% for “leisure and hospitality” workers, while “management, professional, and related” rose only 2.5%.

In 1990, 34.8% of the world's population lived in "extreme" poverty; in 2015, just 9.6%. Look at what happened in India after it ended socialism:

>Since its economic liberalization reforms in 1991, India’s average income has increased by 7.5 percent per year. That means that average income has more than tripled over the last quarter century. As wealth increased, the poverty rate in India declined by almost 24 percent. But most significantly, for the Dalits – the poorest and lowest caste in Indian society – the poverty rate during this period declined even faster, by 31 percent. That means that in the nation that has by far the largest number of people in extreme poverty, it is the people at the very bottom of the social strata who are getting richer faster.

Since 1979, the number of upper-middle-class families has increased by 16%, while the lower-middle-class and poor have decreased from about 48% to 39%. IOW, there are fewer people in the middle class because middle-class people are moving up, as are poor and lower-middle-class.

Keep in mind as well that our definition of "middle class" has changed over the decades. For example, in 1970 only 38% of the US population had air conditioning. Even during the recent recession (2005), 78 percent of *poor* households had AC - not much different from the overall population, at 83%. I grew up poor in the 1970s but had a few upper-middle-class friends. Their standard of living - AC, one car, one phone, two TVs, washer and dryer - was lower than that of the average poor household with children today.