The Formula for a Richer World? Equality,
Liberty, Justice by DEIRDRE N. McCLOSKEY
McCloskey notes:
“The world is rich
and will become still richer. Quit worrying.”
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Related:
WSJ Saturday Essay - Why the West (and the Rest)
Got Rich: The Great Enrichment of the past two centuries has one primary
source: the liberation of ordinary people to pursue their dreams of economic
betterment by DEIRDRE MCCLOSKEY
The always provocative DEIRDRE MCCLOSKEY -
Distinguished professor emerita of economics, history, English and
communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago – observes:
“What enriched the modern world wasn’t capital
stolen from workers or capital virtuously saved, nor was it institutions for
routinely accumulating it. Capital and the rule of law were necessary, of
course, but so was a labor force and liquid water and the arrow of time.
The capital became productive because of ideas for betterment—ideas enacted by a country carpenter or a boy telegrapher or a teenage Seattle computer whiz. As Matt Ridley put it in his book “The Rational Optimist” (2010), what happened over the past two centuries is that “ideas started having sex.” The idea of a railroad was a coupling of high-pressure steam engines with cars running on coal-mining rails. The idea for a lawn mower coupled a miniature gasoline engine with a miniature mechanical reaper. And so on, through every imaginable sort of invention. The coupling of ideas in the heads of the common people yielded an explosion of betterments.”
The capital became productive because of ideas for betterment—ideas enacted by a country carpenter or a boy telegrapher or a teenage Seattle computer whiz. As Matt Ridley put it in his book “The Rational Optimist” (2010), what happened over the past two centuries is that “ideas started having sex.” The idea of a railroad was a coupling of high-pressure steam engines with cars running on coal-mining rails. The idea for a lawn mower coupled a miniature gasoline engine with a miniature mechanical reaper. And so on, through every imaginable sort of invention. The coupling of ideas in the heads of the common people yielded an explosion of betterments.”