It’s not thanks to capitalism that we’re living longer, but progressive politics

In recent years prominent pundits including Steven Pinker, Jordan Peterson and Bill Gates have invoked the progress in global life expectancies to defend capitalism against a growing tide of critics.

Certainly there’s a lot to celebrate on this front. After all, average human life expectancy has improved a great deal. “Intellectuals are apt to do a spit take when they read a defense of capitalism,” Pinker writes in his recent book, Enlightenment Now. But it’s “obvious,” he claims, that “GDP per capita correlates with longevity, health, and nutrition.”

The Guardian