American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark Perry highlights what he says "might qualify as the chart of the century because it illustrates one of the most remarkable achievements in human history."
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Perry also points to Arthur Brooks' commentary on why this is happening across the globe:
It was globalization, free trade, the boom in international entrepreneurship. In short, it was the free enterprise system, American style, which is our gift to the world.
I will state, assert and defend the statement that if you love the poor, if you are a good Samaritan, you must stand for the free enterprise system, and you must defend it, not just for ourselves but for people around the world. It is the best anti-poverty measure ever invented.
That's not to say there isn't a long way to go in making progress on global poverty - not to mention poverty in the United States - but it's important to recognize how far we've come in the last fifty years.
I spoke with Zack Beauchamp on Bloggingheads.tv on this exact topic. In our 2013 round-up video, he highlighted this trend and said that 2013 was likely the best year in human history: