The silver lining of underdevelopment today is that high growth rates allow poor countries like Mexico to achieve within one generation the kind of economic progress that it took rich countries 100 years to achieve. A country that grows at 7 percent, for instance, doubles its income every 10 years. Growth based on economic freedom, rather than on development planning or wealth redistribution, especially benefits the poor. That recipe has helped Chile do more to reduce poverty than most other developing countries. A recent World Bank study covering 80 countries over four decades also found that growth is the most powerful way to reduce poverty.
Economic freedom is strongly related to other measures of progress as well.
The Fraser Institute study found that people living in the top 20 percent of countries in terms of economic freedom tend to live about two decades longer than people in the bottom 20 percent. Lower infant mortality, higher literacy rates, lower corruption and greater access to safe drinking water are also correlated to increases in economic liberty. Indeed, the United Nations' Human Development Index, which measures various aspects of standards of living, correlates positively with greater economic freedom. To meet his high-growth promise, Fox should at a minimum deregulate that sector. The oil industry, also run as a government monopoly, should be deregulated as well.