Filling in the Gaps

Fighting devastating ignorance with fact-based worldviews everyone can understand.

Gapminder Foundation was founded in Stockholm by Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund and Hans Rosling on February 25, 2005.  Gapminder

Facts can tell stories and this is a terrific example of that statement.  You could spend hours exploring the Gapminder site because it is rich in animated graphs and videos about issues related to the health and wealth of nations.  Moreover, you can go back at least one a year to find out how the world has changed.  I do this every winter when I teach introductory macroeconomics–I get the updated map of the world to show my class.  My basic message is this:  It is good to have a high level of income because it is so linked to living long and prosperous. The role of economic growth cannot be over estimated when we explore the idea of standard of living.  Moreover it is not a zero sum game.  The poorest of the poor can be made better off and we in the richest nations wouldn’t notice a drop in how we live. After all, every country started out in the poor and sick camp. Fortunately–for those of us who live in the developed world–we escaped much of our historical misery. I believe we should do everything we can to help prosperity go global.