From Poverty to Progress

Hello, my name is Michael Magoon.

I am the author of the From Poverty to Progress book series. So far, my Substack includes over 400 articles on human material progress. I have been studying progress for 10 years and writing about it for 5 years.

Before I became an author, I was a:

• Life-long history buff (reading books was my favorite past-time)

• Professor in Political Science and Public Policy, and then

• I worked for 20+ years in the Digital Technology sector before retiring in 2020 and going full-time in Progress Studies.

My goals for the Substack column and book series are to:

• Promote an awareness and understanding of material progress, which I believe is humanity’s greatest achievement.

• Study history to understand:

  • the origins of progress

  • the causes of progress

  • how progress works in our daily lives.

• Develop policies and practices to:

  • keep progress going and

  • ensure that the maximum number of people benefit from that progress.

• Stress the importance of geography, food, energy, and evolution (both biological and cultural) to understanding why human material progress exists.

• Stress the dangers of ideologies undermining the foundations of progress.

By progress, I mean “the sustained improvement in the material standard of living for a large group of people over a long period of time.”

For a deeper dive on my thoughts, I suggest you read my From Poverty to Progress book series:

Other resources

In addition to my Substack column and book series, I have plenty of other resources for those interested in human material progress.

My books are for sale:

• at discounted prices at my website: frompovertytoprogress.com

• at full price on Amazon.

You can also:

• watch my YouTube channel.

• read my library of online book summaries on the topics of progress, history, economic growth, and technology.

My Commenting rules

The vast majority of my posts are open to comment by all. Within the constraints of my writing schedule, I enjoy having conversations with people with differing opinions as long as commenters follow these rules:

1. Read the entire post first.
   Given that my opinions are unorthodox, do not assume that you understand my point of view from the headlines or skimming the article.

2. Stay on topic.

3. Be respectful and open to learning. I will do the same.

Anyone who violates the above rules may be blocked or have their comments deleted. I reserve the right to do the above for any comment.

My Edit policy

All my articles are living documents. Life is a learning experience, and I embrace it!

I am constantly editing my published articles to improve them. On many occasions, the edits are in response to a reader's comment. Sometimes the most confrontational reader comments lead to the best edits.

To keep the text flowing smoothly, I do not add in “EDIT” in the text flow as a typical newspaper would. This is not an attempt to prove that I got it right the first time.

Full-size covers for my books