Wow! Can people this happy really be economists?
I read Thomas Friedman’s The Lexus and the Olive Tree just before moving permanently from the U.S., and I have to say, it was encouraging. Sure, places have problems now, but everything’s getting bigger and better. Sure, people are poor now, and sure the poor are further than ever from the rich, but even the poor are better off than ever before, so what are they complaining about?
The same argument appeared in Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty: Forget equality and justice, and focus on things that technology can cure, like malaria rates and infant mortality, and you’ll see that it’s all just getting better and better.
The poor we may have with us always, but at least they won’t be so poor we have to feel guilty about it.
It’s hard to argue with them because I want so much for them to be right.
Really. I’d love to be wrong on this one.
But here’s where I live: I gave up 80% of my U.S. income to come work in the desert. If I gave up another 80%, I’d still be among the better-off of my developing-nation colleagues. If I gave up another 80%, I’d only be approaching the level of the average millions who work around me.
It’s getting better? Globalization will solve this? Please, please be right. Please be right. Then teach me how to live in a world where my monthly diaper bill is more than my neighbors’ income.
But don’t expect me to rush to buy your books (well, I might try another of Friedman’s. He writes better than Sachs.)
They’re too optimistic to really be trusted.
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