The Wealth of Ideas

Why ideas and not capital changed the world.

We’re rich. Even the very poor in Britain are astoundingly rich by historical standards, some three thousand percent better off in food and housing and clothing and healthcare than the British poor two centuries ago. Economic historians can tell you.

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gjmata 20 January 2017

Perhaps exploitation cannot explain what you call the Great Enrichment, but exploitation was and still is a major issue.

As a native of Latin America I could tell a story or two in this regard, but what would be the point of reciting history to a historian?

I believe in equality, liberty, and justice. They are hard to find, however, while standing at the wrong side of a gun barrel.

Roger Sharp 2 January 2017

Hang on. There's something missing from this story. The Enrichment has got us where we are, but it hasn't always been this way, as Jared Diamond's article "The worst mistake in the history of the human race” points out.