A Cup of Joe and a Pot of Good News
Economist Brad Delong on the startling economic growth that has occured over the past 350 years:
One quibble -- who says we won't be around a couple of centuries hence?
Some interesting commentary here. Not surprisingly, many readers of Delong's blog are left-leaning buzzkills. And, of course, there's only one critter in the universe more annoying than them!
I like the Morning Coffee format. I think when I re-launch the L2si Report one of these days I might just have to do it as a video podcast.
UPDATE: To put it in terms agreeable to the game:
Web 1.0 The Speculist
Web 2.0 L2si Report Video Podcast
Comments
One of the amazing things about today's economic growth is that it's *per capita*. I think the podcast puts that into perspective. Another point is consider what happened between 1 AD and 1650 AD. Economically, not much. There were interesting things developed over this time, for example, universities, ocean-ready sailing ships and the resulting global trade routes, but it's interesting how even then, most such progress was in the last few centuries.
My take is that there were a series of disasters, some perhaps not recognized as such. While the Bubonic Plague, Mongolian invasions, or the fall of the Roman Empire were rightfully recognized as disasters, I think also that many of the political systems of the day, eg, the Roman and Byzantium Empires, the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages, and the Ming Dynasty helped contribute to the stagnacy of that era.
This is why I consider stagnation or collapse to be one of the key threats to human civilization. Even now, everyone knows generally what sorts of technologies and systems work. But too many parts of the world still use systems that devalue human labor and ingenuity.
Posted by: Karl Hallowell![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.blog.speculist.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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October 18, 2006 12:24 PM