Question

An American earns, on average, $130 a day, which puts the U.S. in the highest rank...

An American earns, on average, $130 a day, which puts the U.S. in the highest rank of the league table. China sits at $20 a day (in real, purchasing-power adjusted income) and India at $10, even after their emergence in recent decades from a crippling socialism of $1 a day. After a few more generations of economic betterment, tested in trade, they will be rich, too.

Actually, the “we” of comparative enrichment includes most countries nowadays, with sad exceptions. Two centuries ago, the average world income per human (in present-day prices) was about $3 a day. It had been so since we lived in caves. Now it is $33 a day—which is Brazil’s current level and the level of the U.S. in 1940. Over the past 200 years, the average real income per person—including even such present-day tragedies as Chad and North Korea—has grown by a factor of 10. It is stunning. In countries that adopted trade and economic betterment wholeheartedly, like Japan, Sweden and the U.S., it is more like a factor of 30—even more stunning.

And these figures don’t take into account the radical improvement since 1800 in commonly available goods and services. Today’s concerns over the stagnation of real wages in the U.S. and other developed economies are overblown if put in historical perspective. As the economists Donald Boudreaux and Mark Perry have argued in these pages, the official figures don’t take account of the real benefits of our astonishing material progress.

Look at the magnificent plenty on the shelves of supermarkets and shopping malls. Consider the magical devices for communication and entertainment now available even to people of modest means. Do you know someone who is clinically depressed? She can find help today with a range of effective drugs, none of which were available to the billionaire Howard Hughes in his despair. Had a hip joint replaced? In 1980, the operation was crudely experimental.

Nothing like the Great Enrichment of the past two centuries had ever happened before. Doublings of income—mere 100% betterments in the human condition—had happened often, during the glory of Greece and the grandeur of Rome, in Song China and Mughal India. But people soon fell back to the miserable routine of Afghanistan’s income nowadays, $3 or worse. A revolutionary betterment of 10,000%, taking into account everything from canned goods to antidepressants, was out of the question. Until it happened.

What caused it? The usual explanations follow ideology. On the left, from Marx onward, the key is said to be exploitation. Capitalists after 1800 seized surplus value from their workers and invested it in dark, satanic mills. On the right, from the blessed Adam Smith onward, the trick was thought to be savings. The wild Highlanders could become as rich as the Dutch—“the highest degree of opulence,” as Smith put it in 1776—if they would merely save enough to accumulate capital (and stop stealing cattle from one another). Write a summary

Homework Answers

Know the answer?
Your Answer:

Post as a guest

Your Name:

What's your source?

Earn Coins

Coins can be redeemed for fabulous gifts.

Not the answer you're looking for?
Ask your own homework help question
Similar Questions
1. In which phase of the business cycle is the U.S. economy currently in? ________________. How...
1. In which phase of the business cycle is the U.S. economy currently in? ________________. How many months has the U.S. economy been in this stage of the business cycle? ___________ months 2. How long has the current expansion/recovery lasted to date? _________________ How does this compare to the average length of U.S. recessions since 1854? ______________________________. 3. What do the last four recoveries/expansions (that is, the current recovery/expansion and the previous three recovery/expansions), suggest about a new trend in...
Identify hidden cost Identify a sunk cost trap Another assembly line is under construction in Building...
Identify hidden cost Identify a sunk cost trap Another assembly line is under construction in Building 3, to make a new stainless-steel dishwasher starting in early 2013. Building 1 is getting an assembly line to make the trendy front-loading washers and matching dryers Americans are enamored of; GE has never before made those in the United States. And Appliance Park already has new plastics-manufacturing facilities to make parts for these appliances, including simple items like the plastic-coated wire racks that...
Point/Counterpoint from chapter 14. Take a stand. Do you agree or disagree? Write a minimum of...
Point/Counterpoint from chapter 14. Take a stand. Do you agree or disagree? Write a minimum of one paragraph for each one. Chapter 14 Exporting E-waste: A Fair Solution? Point Yes Exporting is always and everywhere a win-win situation: The more companies and countries export, the more they improve market efficiency. Exporting enables companies to increase sales, improve productivity, and diversify activities. Likewise, exporting helps countries generate jobs, accelerate innovation, and improve living standards. In broader terms, it promotes connections among...
How this case apply to globalization ? FREEPORT, Pa. The rising dollar is putting US. Manufacturers...
How this case apply to globalization ? FREEPORT, Pa. The rising dollar is putting US. Manufacturers through the equivalent of a new year's fitness regime, causing pain for now but also promising long-term gains in efficiency. After more than a decade of weakness, the dollar began surging in mid-2014 against the euro and many other currencies. That is making U.S.-made products pricier in other countries and imports cheaper in the U.S.-a combination that is likely to expand, the already gaping...
There are two reflective essays from MED students during their third year internal medicine clerkship. One...
There are two reflective essays from MED students during their third year internal medicine clerkship. One student sees each connection to a patient as like the individual brush strokes of an artist and the other sees gratitude in a patient with an incurable illness and is moved to gratitude in her own life. (WORD COUNT 500) Reflect on both essays and then choose one and describe how the student grew from the experience. Then explain what you learned as a...
Delta airlines case study Global strategy. Describe the current global strategy and provide evidence about how...
Delta airlines case study Global strategy. Describe the current global strategy and provide evidence about how the firms resources incompetencies support the given pressures regarding costs and local responsiveness. Describe entry modes have they usually used, and whether they are appropriate for the given strategy. Any key issues in their global strategy? casestudy: Atlanta, June 17, 2014. Sea of Delta employees and their families swarmed between food trucks, amusement park booths, and entertainment venues that were scattered throughout what would...
What role could the governance of ethics have played if it had been in existence in...
What role could the governance of ethics have played if it had been in existence in the organization? Assess the leadership of Enron from an ethical perspective. THE FALL OF ENRON: A STAKEHOLDER FAILURE Once upon a time, there was a gleaming headquarters office tower in Houston, with a giant tilted "£"' in front, slowly revolving in the Texas sun. The Enron Corporation, which once ranked among the top Fortune 500 companies, collapsed in 2001 under a mountain of debt...
Discuss ethical issues that can be identified in this case and the mode of managing ethics...
Discuss ethical issues that can be identified in this case and the mode of managing ethics Enron finds itself in this case. How would you describe the ethical culture and levels of trust at Enron? Provide reasons for your assessment. THE FALL OF ENRON: A STAKEHOLDER FAILURE Once upon a time, there was a gleaming headquarters office tower in Houston, with a giant tilted "£"' in front, slowly revolving in the Texas sun. The Enron Corporation, which once ranked among...
Discuss how the respective organizations’ relations with stakeholders could have potentially been affected by the events...
Discuss how the respective organizations’ relations with stakeholders could have potentially been affected by the events that took place at Enron and how the situation could have been dealt with differently to prevent further damage? THE FALL OF ENRON: A STAKEHOLDER FAILURE Once upon a time, there was a gleaming headquarters office tower in Houston, with a giant tilted "£"' in front, slowly revolving in the Texas sun. The Enron Corporation, which once ranked among the top Fortune 500 companies,...
Exploring Innovation in Action Power to the People – Lifeline Energy Trevor Baylis was quite a...
Exploring Innovation in Action Power to the People – Lifeline Energy Trevor Baylis was quite a swimmer in his youth, representing Britain at the age of 15. So it wasn’t entirely surprising that he ended up working for a swimming pool firm in Surrey before setting up his own company. He continued his swimming passion – working as a part-time TV stuntman doing underwater feats – but also followed an interest in inventing things. One of the projects he began...
ADVERTISEMENT
Need Online Homework Help?

Get Answers For Free
Most questions answered within 1 hours.

Ask a Question
ADVERTISEMENT