As Michael Shermer tweeted a few days ago, global poverty has declined sharply from 1820. The graphic Shermer shares, created by Max Roser for OurWorldInData.org, reports that 94 percent of the world’s people lived in poverty in 1820, whereas 21 percent did in 2010. That’s remarkable progress by any standard—although of course there’s still a ways to go. Shermer notes that this advance was accomplished “not by making [the] rich poorer, but making [the] poor richer.” Specifically, it was accomplished by producers working in relative freedom. See also Shermer’s article, “The Myth of Income Inequality.”