We are so used to seeing people accept uncritically that opposition to capitalism and all its works is the only possible sign of moral virtue that we do not stop often enough and consider the bankruptcy of such a position. It is contemptible that people who proclaim themselves deeply concerned with human welfare to pay no heed to such unparalleled achievement. For all its, at times apparently relentless, banality, capitalism, at its core, is based on the mass application of individual choice, of institutions which protect and foster mutually beneficial exchanges which have proved to be a profound force for human liberation. After all, poverty is the normal human condition. Most people in history have lived and died in poverty, often grinding poverty.
Most human societies produce mass poverty.
It is the development of societies which achieve mass prosperity which is startling. But now we know how the trick is done. More to the point, people in societies where mass poverty remains know that the trick can be done. The success of the Asian tigers in moving from mass poverty to developed world status in a generation has set the benchmark for governments around the world. They want in because their people demand in.