If you think the world is becoming crazier (like a teacher being sacked for failing to respect a student’s desire to be treated like a cat), think again. Apparently we are just acting out like any society that is overly wealthy and faces no external threats.
Take a look at this video. Warning: a couple of F’s get thrown in towards the end.
Great news from the Centre for Independent Studies:
World hits wealth milestone
12 OCTOBER 2018 | IDEAS@THECENTRE
The world reached an incredible milestone last month. For the first time in recorded history, more than 50% of the entire global population can be classified as middle class or wealthier.
The US-based Brookings Institution has estimated that over 3.8 billion people now have enough discretionary income to be classified as middle class or wealthier. And most of the recent growth in the middle class has occurred in the developing countries of Asia. The Brookings Institution’s estimate is based on the number of households that spend between $11 and $110 (in US dollars) per person each day.
Obviously, any definition of ‘middle-class’ is subjective and contestable (for example, some might argue that home ownership is critical to being middle class). Nonetheless, these developments represent an unambiguous triumph over poverty — which would have been unimaginable even 20 years ago, let alone 200 years ago.
However, it seems the news has attracted little attention in Australia — despite the fact that many Australians care deeply about tackling global poverty. It seems we are blasé — or perhaps just oblivious — when developing countries make huge strides in lifting the living standards of their citizens.
In part, it could represent uncomfortable truth for some of us: that free markets and liberalised trade actually work. And not just for the rich; but also for the millions who lift themselves out of poverty each year. But it could also reflect the negativity bias in news generally. Bad news sells; and people are simply less interested in good news.
It also doesn’t help that statistics are difficult to ‘sell’ as a story. Statistics do not resonate easily with most people or stir up empathy or emotion. A proclamation that the global middle class will reach four billion by 2020 does little to engage a person’s emotions.
But if you say that a mother in India can now afford a refrigerator and washing machine for her home — there’s a story we can all comprehend and celebrate. And she is one of those 3.8 billion people.
Great news about global poverty from the World Bank and IPA: (And it’s good news about market forces, development and economic freedom not protest marches!)
One of the most important of human achievements has been the very significant reduction in extreme poverty experienced by men, women, and children throughout the world.
And in what is sure to be good news, the World Bank has just released a study informing us that one billion people rose out of extreme poverty since 2000, and that in spite of the global financial crisis a few years ago.
The same study reveals the heartening news that the global poverty rate, calculated as the number of people earning $1.90 or less (on an purchasing power parity international dollar basis), is estimated to have fallen into single digits this year.
In 1990, the global poverty rate was a sobering 37.1 per cent but has precipitously fallen since. This is what the World Bank had to say about this amazing achievement, in a press statement:
The number of people living in extreme poverty around the world is likely to fall to under 10 percent of the global population in 2015… giving fresh evidence that a quarter-century-long sustained reduction in poverty is moving the world closer to the historic goal of ending poverty by 2030.
Full article here
New Life Narrabri 
