We live in strange times, times when seemingly we have forgotten the obvious things and are suffering decline as our just desserts.

Not long ago, this was “blatantly obvious civilizational bedrock about which the west broadly agreed.”

Now it seems almost revolutionary.

And i suspect it’s because we’re asking the wrong questions.

This is the correct question.

“Why are these people poor?” is a meaningless question. it’s the base state, nasty, brutish, and short.

Speed Reading: Learn t... Knight, Kam Check Amazon for Pricing. Ask instead: “how did some few people manage to escape the historical norm of the grinding deprivation of being hopelessly poor?” because poverty is not some sort of error, it’s the modal human outcome. like gravity, it must be overcome and lingers always seeking to pull you down.

There is a wonderful book on this entitled “the birth of plenty.” it’s an easy read, especially for a non-economist. it’s replete with interesting examples and analyses. honestly, it ought to be a universal high school curriculum. the world would be far better if it were.

It identifies 4 basic pillars upon which the emergence of plenty rests and provides examples of how removing even one can topple the structure entire. (note that neither “democracy” nor “central banking” are one of them.)

They are:

1. property rights
2. scientific rationalism/scientific method
3. modern capital markets and banking
4. effective and widespread transportation and communication

This is what you need for markets to thrive and to create wealth. i would argue that in order to really sustain point 1 and especially to sustain point 3, you need as a sort of predicate substrate a form of morality and civilizational expectation rooted in fair dealing, keeping your word, and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. golden rules underpin golden ages.

Union Terror: Debunkin... Addicott, Dr. Jeffrey F Best Price: $10.01 Buy New $21.95 (as of 06:01 UTC - Details) And we tinker with this to our gravest peril, but tinker, deface, and demolish seems the order of the day for the decadent 3rd children of “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations” as they squander what they were given because they have only ever known plenty and fail to understand that it is an achievement, a remarkable outcome of a finely wrought machine instead of the base state to which all are inevitably entitled. they see it as normal, not exceptional and thus seek to efface and eliminate exceptionalism itself as an idea.

And so luddite doctrine pervades and effect is mistaken for cause and the true sources of prosperity neglected and maligned.

Labor may or may not be inherently noble, but it is not inherently productive. one man with a backhoe can out dig a platoon with shovels. people only have so many hours a day. it is ONLY by making them more productive that plenty may accrue. and vilifying those who push these envelopes is a path to penury.

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