Capitalism Saves the Children

As cute trick or treaters stream by your door, some perhaps with UNICEF boxes, (see Tricked by UNICEF for yet another UN entity's unsavory activities---you'd be better off giving to a charity of your choice.) think about what really impacts the future of children around the world. Bjorn Lomborg:

The number of hungry people depends much less on climate than on demographics and income. Extremely expensive cuts in carbon emissions could mean more malnourished people. If our goal is to fight malnutrition, policies like getting nutrients to those who need them are 5,000 times more effective at saving lives than spending billions of dollars cutting carbon emissions.

Likewise, global warming will probably slightly increase malaria, but CO2 reductions will be far less effective at fighting this disease than mosquito nets and medication, which can cheaply save 850,000 lives every year. By contrast, the expensive Kyoto Protocol will prevent just 1,400 deaths from malaria each year.

And this from Rich Lowry:

Such growth in developing countries is the result of, according to the World Bank, "further integration into world markets, better functioning internal markets and rising demand for many commodities." In short: globalization and capitalism. When a goateed anarcho-syndicalist commits an act of vandalism at an anti-globalization protest, he might think that he's striking a blow against The Man, but he's really rallying against the chance some desperately poor little boy or girl has to live a healthier life.

So put a smile on a kid's face with candy or a donation, and pause for a minute to remember what might make a kid smile on the other side of the Earth.