How Mao Zedong Helped Reduce Poverty

My hometown newspapers, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, have recently headlined stories on the tragic increase of hunger in Venezuela.

Yes, it is important to call attention to how the socialist regime of Chavez-Maduro has impoverished that resource-rich nation. It is also important to focus the spotlight on the economic disasters brought about by “command economies” in Cuba, North Korea, and everywhere where the allure of central planning has prevailed.  Yet, there is a broader story of how extreme poverty is being eradicated worldwide, and how the world is becoming middle class, as argued by Harvard’s psychology professor Steven Pinker. Dr. Pinker is listed by Time, Foreign Policy, and other magazines as one of the world’s most influential thinkers.  He protests, together with economist Max Roser, whose work focuses on how living conditions around the world are changing, that headlines should proclaim:  “NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN EXTREME POVERTY FELL BY 137,000 SINCE YESTERDAY”  They assert that this same headline could have been repeated by the media every day for the last twenty-five years. That is how much daily progress we are making in reducing worldwide extreme poverty. From 1820 to 2015, the percentage of the world population living in extreme poverty has declined from 90 percent to 10 percent. Almost half of that decline has occurred in the last thirty-five years.  This brings up the obvious question as to why has extreme poverty declined so dramatically as of late. To this question, International Development economist Steven Radelet offers a witty explanation: “In 1976, Mao single-handedly and dramatically changed the direction of global poverty with one simple act: he died.”  What these social scientists are pointing out is that, the death of Mao Zedong unleashed major causes for the worldwide decline of extreme poverty. In China, Mao’s death allowed the introduction of substantial free-market reforms by his successor Deng Xiaoping.  The poverty reduction success of free-market reforms in China has been dramatic. Since Mao’s death, the daily caloric consumption per person in China has increased from approximately 1,500 calories to 3,100 calories. This higher level is what U.S. guidelines recommend as needed for a highly active young man.