Chart of the greatest and most remarkable achievement in human history, and one you probably never heard about

[Valin]

AEIdeas:

Mark J. Perry

December 31, 2013

 

Everybodys featuring their graphs and charts of the year, like The Atlantic and the Washington Post (be sure to see Vice-President Joe Bidens Graph of the Year on Amtrak ridership). Well, the chart above could perhaps qualify as the chart of the century because it illustrates one of the most remarkable achievements in human history: the 80% reduction in world poverty in only 36 years, from 26.8% of the worlds population living on $1 or less (in 1987 dollars) in 1970 to only 5.4% in 2006. (Source: The 2009 NBER working paper Parametric Estimations of the World Distribution of Income, by economists Maxim Pinkovskiy (MIT) and Xavier Sala-i-Martin (Columbia University).

 

What accounts for this great achievement that you never hear about? AEI president Arthur Brooks explains in the video below, summarized here:

 

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(Snip)