No One Signed a Contract with Poverty
Poverty is first and foremost a state of mind when it ceases to be a temporary situation and becomes an identity. Material deprivation is real, but it becomes even more dangerous when it is rationalized, celebrated or presented as a superior form of virtue.
Riding a bicycle most of the time can follow a very simple logic: saving money and preserving resources for more important projects. It is not necessarily an ideological commitment against cars. When one has the means to buy a car, take a plane or even travel into space, there is no moral reason to deny oneself these possibilities.
The same applies to luxury. Not wearing Gucci or Prada does not necessarily mean that these brands are contemptible. It may simply mean that they are not yet affordable. True honesty consists of recognizing one’s constraints without turning them into a universal philosophy.
Immigration can also be part of this search for progress. It is not always about escaping misery, but about seeking greater freedom, security and opportunities for one’s family. A better life cannot be reduced to the accumulation of possessions. It nevertheless requires good health, a sufficiently full bank account and the freedom to decide how to use one’s time.
This conception of progress runs through the Scottish Enlightenment. Commerce, industry, enrichment and material refinement were not regarded as moral failings. They allowed individuals to improve their condition and gradually escape dependency.⁎¹ Libertarian thought extends this idea: no institution should decide on behalf of an individual what level of comfort, mobility or ambition ought to be sufficient.⁎²
Yet part of the Western world now appears to have replaced progress with an ideology of restriction. People are expected to travel less, consume less, move less and accept relative impoverishment, while calling it an advancement.
China and Singapore follow a different logic. These countries are not models of freedom in every respect, but they still understand that prosperity rests on production, technology, infrastructure and companies capable of conquering markets.
The Chinese economic miracle did not consist of teaching hundreds of millions of people to be satisfied with their poverty. It was based on economic opening, industry, investment and a massive expansion of productive capacity. Nearly 800 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty within a few decades.⁎³
While the West tells its citizens that they should use cars less, China is developing BYD and gradually making electric vehicles accessible to the mass market. In 2025, nearly 70% of fully electric cars sold in China were already less expensive than their internal-combustion equivalents.⁎⁴
Singapore applies the same strategic discipline on a different scale. The state supports companies that improve their productivity, develop technologies, enter new markets or build sectors considered important. It provides financing, networks, skills and international access. It does not simply distribute subsidies with no clear connection to the creation of economic capabilities.⁎⁵
Funding a project related to ADHD, culture or any other social cause can be entirely legitimate. But it is not an industrial policy. A society that can no longer distinguish compassion, political communication and strategic investment eventually disperses its resources. While it finances a succession of small projects with no measurable economic effect, other countries support their manufacturers, technologies, infrastructure and exporters.
The same problem appears in the labour market. A growing share of investment, production and services is moving toward the Global South and Southeast Asia because these regions are developing their skills, infrastructure and competitiveness. Developing Asia is now the leading destination for foreign investment among developing regions, while Southeast Asia attracts considerable industrial investment.⁎⁶
The Western response cannot consist of continually replacing its working population instead of training, equipping and making the people already present more productive. Immigration can enrich a country and address certain needs. It must not serve as an excuse to avoid investing in local skills, wages, automation and national companies.⁎⁷
Importing lower-cost labour does not constitute a long-term prosperity strategy. It can even sustain a system in which businesses compensate for low productivity by maintaining constant pressure on labour costs.⁎⁸
This is where Brave New World remains relevant. In Huxley’s work, control does not rely solely on force. It relies on conditioning individuals to love the place that has been assigned to them. A society can therefore present restriction as happiness, dependency as protection and a lack of ambition as wisdom.⁎⁹
There is no question of living on a comfortable reservation, consuming kombucha and dhal, and then pretending that renunciation represents the highest form of human existence. These choices are entirely respectable when they are freely made. They become disturbing when they are established as a mandatory model for everyone else.
Prosperity is not shameful. Money is not everything, but it provides time, security and choices. Freedom does not consist of learning to love one’s limitations. It consists of having the means to overcome them.
No one signed a contract with poverty. And no one should accept regression being sold as progress.
References
⁎¹ Hume, David. “Of Refinement in the Arts,” in Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, 1752. Hume connects the growth of industry and the arts with the improvement of social life. Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter I, 1776. Smith links the division of labour to a form of prosperity capable of extending to the lowest ranks of society.
⁎² Nozick, Robert. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books, 1974. Nozick bases his political philosophy on individual rights and the limits they impose on state action. Hayek, Friedrich A. “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” The American Economic Review, vol. 35, no. 4, 1945, pp. 519–530. Hayek argues that economic knowledge is dispersed among individuals and cannot be fully centralized.
⁎³ World Bank and Development Research Center of the State Council of China. Four Decades of Poverty Reduction in China: Drivers, Insights for the World, and the Way Ahead. Washington: World Bank, 2022. The report estimates that nearly 800 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty in China over forty years.
⁎⁴ International Energy Agency. Global EV Outlook 2026. Paris: IEA, 2026. According to the report, 70% of fully electric cars sold in China in 2025 were cheaper than the average conventional car.
⁎⁵ Enterprise Singapore. Enterprise Development Grant, Productivity Solutions Grant and internationalization programmes. These initiatives support innovation, automation, business transformation, skills development and access to foreign markets.
⁎⁶ United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. World Investment Report 2025 and ASEAN Investment Report 2025. Developing Asia remains the leading destination for foreign investment among developing economies. Foreign direct investment in ASEAN manufacturing increased by nearly 150%, reaching US$44 billion.
⁎⁷ International Labour Organization. “Skills for Migrant Workers” and “Skills and Migration.” The ILO recommends linking migration policies to a precise assessment of labour-market needs, skills forecasting, training and economic integration.
⁎⁸ Marcolin, Luca. The Firm Side of Labour Shortages: Five New Facts from the GFP Employer Survey. OECD Productivity Working Papers. Paris: OECD, 2025. The study observes that less productive companies are more exposed to shortages associated with low wages and poorer working conditions, while more productive companies invest more in training, automation and reorganization. An OECD analysis of Canada also notes that increased temporary migration can support lower-value-added activities and weigh on productivity growth.
⁎⁹ Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. London: Chatto & Windus, 1932. The novel depicts a hierarchical society in which individuals are conditioned from birth to accept the functions and social position assigned to them.