[drb91]

Well, an appeal to common belief has never held much water.

In any case, there are more things to measure with effects of technology than poverty, which is far from an objective measure and implies many things about the values of the person measuring it. You need to compare and contrast multiple views of the world to meaningfully conclude one is better. Steven Pinker has only made a readable argument for one perspective. Merely accepting that argument will not necessarily provide you with a better model. This viewpoint is inevaluable by itself; a pleasant bit of secular faith.

Anyway, it’s tone deaf because children are also mining our computer components, working in effectively slave labor factories, recycling our technology at great cost to their communities, likely because the power dynamics between nations are so skewed to wealth. This “progress” is paid for in the blood of children.... so, by producing such a simple view of the universe, you are implying your values and marginal life improvement completely justify the pain people go through producing your phone, sneakers, tv, all of which are designed to rapidly deteriorate and continue the cycle.