Do not knock prosperity that makes the good life possible

Illustration by Zhou Tao

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WALKING along the banks of the River Thames in my hometown of London it is difficult to believe what it was once like.

In the mid-nineteenth century it was full of untreated human waste and a source of widespread cholera. As late as 1957 pollution levels were so high that is was considered biologically dead.

But after a concerted clean-up operation it is now home to about 120 fish species and 400 types of invertebrates.

It is for reasons such as this that I disagree with Wang Yong's criticisms of "Ferraris for All," my book defending economic progress, in Shanghai Daily on June 4 ("There must be more to the good life than a Ferrari").

It seems to me that he grossly underestimates the benefits of economic progress.

This is not to argue the world is perfect, far from it, but greater prosperity has on balance made it a hugely better place for humans to live in.

Wang Yong's article is infused with a peculiar nostalgia for the past. At one point he says that "many of our ancestors lived fulfilling and smoke-free lives precisely because there were no Ferraris, or internal combustion engines."

Given the first practical internal combustion engine was invented in 1859, that takes him back over 150 years. Later on he describes the Industrial Revolution, which first emerged in Britain in the eighteenth century, as "the industrial pollution."

But would Wang Yong really want to go back to live back then? Would he like to live in a world without modern medicine? Without vaccinations? If he had a toothache, would he be happy to do without dentists?

All reputable figures show that, on balance, humans live longer and healthier lives than ever before.

Perhaps the most striking of all is that average global live expectancy has increased from about 30 in 1800 to about 68 years today. That alone indicates a staggering improvement in human welfare.

We have also, on average, become better educated, more intelligent (at least as measured by IQ), more mobile, taller and wealthier.

The average person today, even the average poor person, has access to opportunities his ancestors could not have dreamed of.

Previous generations

Wang Yong also romanticizes how previous generations lived. Before the invention of the internal combustion engine, and contrary to his argument, people lived far from smoke-free lives.

No doubt large numbers died from indoor air pollution as a result of burning such fuels as dung, straw and wood.

Even today, according to figures from the World Health Organization, about two million people worldwide die every year from inhaling such fumes. The vast majority are too poor to be connected to the electricity grid.

The important point is not that economic progress is without problems but that over time it brings considerable benefits. Its advantages easily outweigh the disadvantages.

In addition, it brings the means to overcome the challenges it creates. The clean-up of London's formerly polluted River Thames discussed at the start of this article is a perfect illustration.

Wang Yong's specter of Shanghai being over-run by cars shows that he does not appreciate this point. His argument that if everyone in Shanghai had a car it would lead to a monumental killer smog is what I would call "naive extrapolation."

It reminds me of the nineteenth century predictions that London would eventually be covered in manure because of the rising number of horse-drawn carriages. Instead cars took their place.

Economic growth not only allows us to have more but also to do things better. So future cars might not produce any smog as they could be powered by alternative energy sources such as electricity or by hydrogen fuel cells. It would also be necessary to improve Shanghai's infrastructure considerably so it could handle so many more cars.

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