RealClear Radio Hour: Dodging The Devil’s Bargain, Appreciating Crowdsourced Evolution

Eliminating extreme poverty around the world has been a driving moral force for western civilization throughout modern history, but in recent decades that mission has bogged down due to ineffective government programs and misguided bureaucratic do-gooders. On this week’s RealClear Radio Hour I’ll talk with two guests who know the true path to defeating global poverty: markets.

In the first half of the show I sit down with Mark Weber, Co-producer of the award winning documentary Poverty, Inc. Mark challenges traditional foreign aid as the lynchpin of a global poverty industry that enriches benefactors while eliminating opportunities and purchasing power for the supposed beneficiaries. Weber advocates empowering the world’s poor through access to and participation in markets, rather than treating them as objects of charity.

In the second half, I’m joined by Matt Ridley, author of The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge. Matt explains how all human progress—from language, morality, and marriage customs to common law, science, and technological innovation—arises from incremental, bottom-up developments born from repeat interactions in the legal, commercial and intellectual marketplace.

You can hear from both of our guests this week by listening to the full show as-aired on iTunes, or you can check out the individual podcasts hosted on YouTube and SoundCloud. Make sure to check back next week for another episode of RealClear Radio Hour.

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