Marknadsreformer lyfter Kina ut ur fattigdomen

Thomas Sowell, Rose &Milton Friedman Senior Fellow, skriver i Curing poverty or using poverty? om hur Kinas marknadsreformer gör att fattigdomen minskar med en miljon människor i månaden:

People on the political left make a lot of noise about poverty and advocate all sorts of programs and policies to reduce it but they show incredibly little interest in how poverty has actually been reduced, whether in China or anywhere else. You can bet the rent money that the left will show little or no interest in how Chinese by the millions are rising out of poverty every year. The left showed far more interest in China back when it was run by Mao in far left fashion -- and when millions of Chinese were starving. ...The only thing that can cure poverty is wealth. The Chinese acquired wealth the old-fashioned way: They created it. After the death of Mao, government controls over the market began to be relaxed -- first tentatively, in selected places and for selected industries. Then, as those places and those industries began to prosper dramatically, similar relaxations of government control took place elsewhere, with similar results. ...When it comes to lifting people out of poverty, redistribution of income and wealth has a much poorer and more spotty track record than the creation of wealth. In some places, such as Zimbabwe today, attempts at a redistribution of wealth have turned out to be a redistribution of poverty.

Sowell påminner om självklarheter som ofta går förlorade i den europeiska debatten om kampen mot fattigdomen. När ska Europa samstämt markera att marknadsekonomi och frihandel helt enkelt är i särklass när det gäller att utrota fattigdomen? Will it ever happen?