I said the amount of people living under the universal poverty line, which is now $1.90 a day has fallen, and though it is a metric that gives the appearance of objectivity, it is in fact set arbitrarily by institutions (the UN, the World Bank) that have a vested interest in giving the impression that things are constantly getting better. It doesn’t give an entire picture of the reality behind the numbers, which is why I mentioned Foxconn.

You can take someone living on a farm whose income on paper is 12000 yuan that they made from selling the farm’s surplus crops and put them in a factory where they make double or triple. You’ve “raised them from poverty (on paper)” But is their life better? Are they better off working 12 hour days 6 days a week and living in a company dorm where the windows are glued shut so they don’t fling themselves out?

I lived in China for eight years and worked for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, so I can attest to how things are there from personal experience. Great wealth exists alongside greater misery.

You talk about how America didn’t become wealthy overnight. It’s true. It took 400 years, 300 of which were years of slavery and genocidal expansion, and the last century was one of neocolonial exploitation of the global South. The bottom line is that the few get rich through the exploitation of the many. There are winners and losers.

Talk all you want about all boats rising, but at the end of the day a handful of people have more wealth than half the world, and you want to say “No, you see it’s okay because now 4 billion people are making 2 dollars a day instead of 1!”