August
28, 2002 9:00 a.m. Real
Aid
Save
the planet with capitalism.
henever
delegates from countries around the world get together it is almost always
bad news for freedom and capitalism. The earth summit on "sustainable
development" that is currently being held in South Africa is no exception.
So
far the conference has been an all-too-predictable bashing of rich nations
for holding back the poor nations. The rich nations (the United States)
are asked to do more to alleviate AIDS, more to reduce global poverty,
more to protect the earth's natural resources, more to feed the hungry,
and more to stop mythical global warming. All that was left off the list.
Instead, we hear the familiar refrain from self-righteous-and-yet repressive
leaders of poor nations that the U.S. with five percent of the world's
population uses 25 percent of the world's resources. (No mention that
the U.S. also produces more than 25 percent of the world's output —
of AIDS drugs, food, vaccines, infant formula, humanitarian aid; the list
goes on.)
There is an overall
false message of doom and decline at the earth summit, as if the earth's
ecosystem is on the verge of collapse and that human beings are worse
off now than in the past. It isn't true. Sure, in some of the heartbreakingly
repressed nations of Africa things are getting worse. But in the rest
of the world things are almost universally getting much better —
in terms of health, in terms of material progress, and in terms of a cleaner
environment.
Here are some of
the most encouraging trends that you will not hear about among the elite
gathered in South Africa this week.
Life Expectancy:
In the rich countries life expectancy — the broadest measure of health
and a safe environment — has increased by 30 years over the past
century. Even in poor countries life expectancy has risen at an astonishing
pace. The average resident of a poor nation can expect to live nearly
twice as long as his or her 19th-century counterpart. Most of humanity
enjoys better health and longevity than the richest people in the richest
countries did just 100 years ago.
Health: Parents should reflect long and hard on one statistic whenever
they think life isn't treating them well these days: The death rate of
children under 14 has fallen by about 95 percent since 1900. The child
death rates in just the past 20 years have been halved in India, Egypt,
Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, South Korea, Israel, and scores of other
nations. Almost all of the major killer diseases prior to 1900 —
tuberculosis, typhoid, smallpox, whooping cough, polio, malaria —
to name a few, have been nearly eradicated thanks to medical progress,
most it coming from the evil capitalist United States.
Nutrition: Nutrition and diets have been improving the world over. Gale
Johnson the agriculture expert at the University of Chicago has discovered
that fewer people worldwide died from famine in the 20 century than in
the 19th century — not just as a percentage of the population, but
in absolute numbers. That is a spectacular achievement in our ability
to feed the planet, given that the world population is some four times
higher today than 100 years ago.
Education: The world's inhabitants are better educated than previously.
Illiteracy has fallen by more than two thirds in the U.S. and by an even
greater percentage in many poor nations.
Environment: Economic development is the best way to clean the environment.
Poverty is the biggest impediment to clean air and water. Consider the
U.S.: Smog levels have declined by about 40 percent, and carbon monoxide
is down nearly one third since the 1960s despite nearly twice as many
cars. Some of the most impressive advances in cleaning the air have been
recorded in the dirtiest cities, including Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and
Chicago. Airborne lead is down more than 90 percent from 40 years ago.
Contaminated drinking water killed hundreds of thousands of Americans
annually 100 years ago, versus very few deaths today.
Natural Resources: By any measure, natural resources have become more
available rather than more scarce. Consider copper, which is typical of
metals: The cost of a ton is only about a tenth of what it was 200 years
ago. There is evidence that oil — the most worrisome of resources
because it is mostly burned up and therefore cannot be recycled —
has actually been getting cheaper to produce.
What has been the driving force behind this miraculous progress? Three
words: free-market capitalism. If only the intellectual elite and the
power holders in South Africa this week would go home and deregulate their
economies, cut tax rates, expand democracy, and cut government rules and
bureaucracies, we could blaze a path to alleviating world poverty in a
generation or two. If only markets, not governments, controlled the price
and usage of natural resources, we would see a further abundance of food,
minerals, and energy — enough for the entire world to share in the
bounty.
The earth summit is based on a cancerous and discredited creed of limits
to growth. It is insane to hope that people who believe in limits to growth
will create the conditions that nurture growth. Even the term "sustainable
development" is offensive and suggests that economic development
and improving the environment are somehow incompatible — which is
precisely the opposite of the historical record. Where there is economic
development and capitalism, there is clean air and water, well-educated
citizens, abundant resources and low disease rates. Where there is no
capitalism, there is an abundance of these maladies.
It really is all that simple.
The only real limits to growth are created by wrong-headed conferences
populated by unthinking do-gooders.
Freedom will save the planet — if only governments will allow it.
—
Stephen Moore is president of the Club for Growth.
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henever
delegates from countries around the world get together it is almost always
bad news for freedom and capitalism. The earth summit on "sustainable
development" that is currently being held in South Africa is no exception.
