When a society prioritizes simplicity in government, citizens are freer; When they’re freer, they produce and trade more

The War on Poverty Makes Poverty Worse writes Christopher Baecker of Mises Wire.

Poverty is the natural, initial state. Society wasn’t just born into affluence; it had to be created. As new Argentine president Javier Milei reminded attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, humans trudged along for hundreds of years at little more than subsistence level.

Then, at the elbow of the classic hockey stick graph he cited, economic growth started skyrocketing. A few things coincided with that.

The Industrial Revolution and the publication of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations were two. If the only achievement of that book was promoting the virtues of specialization, it would have been enough.

Another thing happened the same year that Mr. Smith’s book was published: the United States was born. When a society prioritizes simplicity in government, citizens are freer. When they’re freer, they produce and trade more. That is what immigrants found when they came here.