Ideological Approaches to Poverty

In his poverty speech, Arthur Brooks explains why conservatives and liberals need to work together. The social scientist and former French horn player shares five reasons why 2 billion people were pulled out of extreme poverty since the 1970s in what he calls the greatest anti-poverty achievement of mankind. This miracle was possible due to globalization, free trade, property rights, rule of law and entrepreneurship -- in essence the free enterprise system making its way around the world.

Viewing capitalism as aspiration instead of just accumulation is the key. The speaker believes the way to help the next 2 billion is to eradicate political polarization. The poverty speech explains that a majority of people in America believe they are motivated by love, where as the other side is motivated by hate. The answer is to combine ideals valued by both sides to help others. This means combining an obsession with poverty on the left with a right-favored method of economic freedom. Both are necessary.

Flexible ideology and uniting to consider the best way to mitigate poverty is only possible when people remember it's not enough to merely tolerate people who disagree. Brooks encourages the audience to be ambiguous when it comes to labelling.