While the standard secular narrative is that Christianity held back science and human development, history tells a different story, one of literacy and the development of human capital.
Janet Yellen, who once was the nation's chief inflationist, now says that poor women need easy access to abortion because inflation might work a hardship on them.
Critics of free markets claim that capitalism causes poverty. After economic restrictions against India's Dalits caste were lifted, many Dalits were able to secure a better life and rise from poverty.
Extended families have long functioned to provide alternatives to the state in terms of risk sharing and mutual aid. Other economic benefits include the refinement of human capital and economies of scale.
People must still compete for resources in a socialist economy. In fact, the competition is intense. On the other hand, thanks to markets, basic necessities—and even basic luxuries—are now more more accessible than ever.
The empirical evidence shows that neither minimum wages or welfare reduce poverty. In fact, minimum wages tend to increase the cost of living while poverty rates have gone nowhere since the Great Society was introduced.
“Poverty in society is overcome by productivity, and in no other way. There is no political alchemy which can transmute diminished production into increased consumption.”
