At the turn of the nineteenth century, approximately one billion people -- about 80% of the world's population -- lived in what is identified today as extreme poverty. The following century, the number of people living in poverty fell slowly until 1950, when the poverty rate began to drop dramatically -- so much so that even the United Nations hadn't fully expected it. By 1992, the world’s impoverished population had fallen to twenty percent. The World Bank estimates that by 2030, extreme poverty will be a thing of the past.
Never in the history of mankind has so many people been lifted out of poverty in such a short time. Consider that in 1920, just one percent of Americans had indoor plumbing.
Perhaps even more impressive are all the things that have become possible for those even moderately above the poverty line. Look at smartphone penetration, and consider the sum of superpowers contained in the device: video recording and conferencing, GPS, voice contact, photography, media consumption, and -- with data -- access to a world of knowledge and information via an Internet browser.
When thinking of wealth, it's common to think purely about one's buying power against common assets like food and shelter. However, the rapid pace of technological advances has increased our buying power not just of goods, but of new superpowers -- whether international communication, accelerated learning, or the ability to sell our own goods or knowledge more easily -- mostly contained in our smartphones and other new gadgets.
Let's see how technology and entrepreneurship has made us all truly richer.
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
With so much focus on income equality today, it’s easy to miss how wealthy we truly are compared to just fifty years ago. And most, if not all, of these life improvements happened as a result of entrepreneurs who demonstrated an extraordinary ability to produce valuable products and services for their fellow man.
From Eli Whitney and Henry Ford to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, entrepreneurs have changed the world by solving everyday problems and making life better -- not just for the rich, but for everyone.
Beyond the intrinsic benefits of capitalism (job and wealth creation, increased productivity, and private incentives), many of today’s entrepreneurs make philanthropy a part of their business model.
Since 2006, Toms Shoes has given away more than 25 million pairs of shoes in 60 countries through their one-for-one business model. Whenever a Toms customer buys a pair of shoes, the company donates a pair to a person in need. Many others have followed suit: Warby Parker, an online designer eyewear provider, partners with non-profits like VisionSpring to ensure that for every pair of glasses sold, a pair is distributed to someone in need. Similarly, Nouri Bar donates a portion of the proceeds for every product sold to partners who deliver food to the world’s poor.
It’s not just the young, hip companies that value philanthropy. In 2014, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation gave $1.4 billion in cash and in-kind contributions around the world. Target’s corporate giving now equals more than $4 million every week to the communities they serve. Those dollars go toward fighting hunger, aiding disaster preparedness and relief efforts, supporting the arts, and putting more kids on the path to high school graduation.
Small Change — Big Impacts
Entrepreneurs also change culture -- sometimes for just one, and sometimes for nations. For the first three years of my own web development company, the total employee count tallied one -- just me. As business took off, I moved into an office and brought on our first hires. Though it's never easy to to find great people, it's possible to nurture them: our first hire had no web experience, but his work history and eagerness to learn suggested he'd make a great hire. He quickly grew into a skilled User Interface designer, and now works for a large defense contractor following our acquisition. Furthermore, his entrepreneurial drive has helped his sister and his brother-in-law find employment with the same company.
While our story isn't unique, Dan Price's is. You may recognize the name from his Inc cover story following his globally-trending announcement of plans to raise the minimum salary at his company, Gravity Payments, to $70,000 a year. Many observers mistook Price’s move as a political statement or exaggerated claims of lost clients, but the numbers don't lie: Gravity's revenue and profits nearly doubled since the announcement.
Price was praised by some, lambasted by others, and sued by his brother. His motives have been questioned, but what nearly every pundit missed is the fact that Price never thought of his enterprise as a way to make money — he just wanted to help people. Now, his initiative has spread as far as Vietnam, where a factory owner who noticed the #imwithdan campaign on Twitter has raised salaries for his own workers.
Full-Time Philanthropy
For being one of the richest men in the world, Bill Gates sure doesn't think about money much. Instead, his mind is consumed with the desire to make an impact. After building Microsoft into one of the world's most powerful companies, Gates stepped down from day-to-day operations at Microsoft in 2000, at age 44. His new calling has become the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: a charitable organization that has devoted $28 billion to grants and charitable contributions.
In fact, Forbes singled out the Gates, who donated $2.65 billion the previous year toward initiatives lick fighting disease and reforming education, as the most philanthropic pair in the nation. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world. Consider the scale: the annual giving from their foundation rivals that of the United Nations World Health Organization.
And the scope of change the Gate’s Foundation is exacting is truly mind-boggling. They’re working to rid the world of polio, malaria, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases that ravage many of the world’s most impoverished countries and hamper economic development. History may forget Microsoft, but it’s unlikely that it will forget Bill Gates.
Whether or not entrepreneurs set out to change the world for the better, most business owners often have a positive impact, if only in their small corner. Want to change the world? Start a business.