In 1981 42 per cent of the world lived in extreme poverty earning less than $700 USD per year. Today that number is less than 10 per cent.

Economists studying this decline have discovered that open borders immigration and wealth redistribution has not been the solution, but rather the classical conservative solution of small government: reducing the regulation burden.

Data from 189 economies shows that increasing business creation has a correlating decrease in the levels of poverty in each nation. Government is not the answer to personal and social problems.

Individual responsibility and liberty is what actually empowers and lifts citizens out of extreme poverty.  Government getting out of our road is the answer.

Or as Craig Eyermann, Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, puts it:

Regulations can restrict the ability of individuals to find jobs or start businesses because politicians and bureaucrats often write them to benefit the interests of large, established interests, who would rather not have to compete for business in a free market.

This crony socialism benefits these special interests in two ways. First, by using the power of government to impose disproportionately large costs upon their smaller, less politically connected competition, they can keep their smaller competitors from being able to effectively challenge their interests.

Second, in the reduced competition environment that government regulation fosters, they can charge higher prices than they otherwise could, where they only need to provide the politicians and bureaucrats who write the rules a small cut of the action so they can fund their political campaigns to stay in power. Never mind the effect that has on the cost of living in the regimes where the regulations hold sway or the trust that people have in their political and economic institutions.

Dave Pellowe is a speaker, writer and political commentator and blogs at PelloweTalk.com.

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