Saturday, October 18, 2014

China's people love capitalism, but hate inequality. That's bad news for the government.

At least, that's the argument in this VOX article, mainly based on the following answers to the 2014 PEW Global Attitude survey, showing first a very large support for the market economy


but at the same time blaming the government for the inequality the country has experienced:


Out of curiosity, I have looked at the answers to those questions in France. French people are much less convinced than Chinese about the market system: only 60% agree that most people are better off in a free market economy, while 39% disagree. As for the fraction of people who see inequality as a major challenge, it is much larger in France (60%) than in China (42%)! Finally, French people blame less their own government's policies (23%), trade (4%) and more workers' pay (26%), their educational system (10%), their tax system (19%) or the fact that some work harder than others (17%) than the Chinese.


Thursday, October 16, 2014

5 reasons why 2013 was the best year in human history

Read them here.

Here is a quick summary, with graphs:

1. Fewer people are dying young, and more are living longer.


2. Fewer people suffer from extreme poverty, and the world is getting happier.


3. War is becoming rarer and less deadly.

Pinker


4. Rates of murder and other violent crimes are in free-fall.

5. There’s less racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination in the world.

best_year_graphics-04