This piece is part of a two-part series. To read the other half, click here.

I was coming back from a trip to Houston recently when I passed a mural on the side of a building that read, “End hunger.” I thought to myself, we have. This is not to say that there are no hungry people in the U.S. (and no doubt in other parts of the world), but under no system other than capitalism can you go to a warehouse like Costco or Sams and opt to buy a literal pallet of canned goods, if you so desired. The supply to feed 100% of America readily exists.

It is not simply my opinion that the McDonald’s McDouble is the most abundant, bountiful food in history. Hate on McDonald’s as much as you want, but the McDouble has probably done more to fight hunger than any single charity or food pantry ever has. How has McDonald's been able to do this? Free-market capitalism.

Free-market capitalism has brought more abundance to the world than any other system devised by man. In no other way could so many people be fed. In no other system could McDonald’s sell a burger 300 billion times at such a minor cost. Note that it has been sold so many times because of its cheapness. (I will concede, as an aside, that some of the cheapness of this product comes from government farm and ranch subsidies and poor labor conditions abroad - supporting the latter being an unfortunate condition of free-market trade.)

While Venezuelans are starving and the number of those in poverty have nearly doubled in that country since 2014 due to its socialist system, the United States’ poor are overweight. But even the poor can afford healthier food than McDonald's.

A common myth is the perception that healthy food is more expensive. It is not. Food Network (and a plethora of other outlets) outlines dish after healthy dish for less than $3 per serving. New York Times reporter Mark Bittman demonstrates how you can prepare a meal for four at half the cost of a fast food restaurant. Canned and frozen vegetables are extensively cheap; so are staples like rice, flour, and beans.

Capitalism has ensured against hunger by doing a number of things: It has increased agricultural production, raised humanity’s wealth (allowing us to buy and consume food), and it has streamlined and optimized transportation to ensure food is delivered everywhere there is a demand.

Not only are we more wealthy, but our buying power has also increased, as shown by the long-term price of eggs. The USDA reports that the “real” prices of soybeans, wheat, and corn have dropped significantly as well over the past century.

Without capitalism, you’d find what happens in most deeply socialist nations: price caps and rationing lead inevitably to shortages, which lead to food lines and indefinite hunger, as outlined in Basic Economics (Sowell, 2004).

For all of those that believe socialism or communism is more compassionate, it is my contention that, as far as solving hunger, capitalism is the largest, most effective humanitarian gift the world has ever seen. It is compassionate, it is collective; for we are all supporting the production, through our own spending, of the cheap products and services for someone else.

This is part one of a two-part series. Read ‘Capitalism Kills Poverty,’ below: