The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
The book opens with a photograph of a stone hand ax and a computer mouse. Both fit the human hand. The stone tool was made by one person for their own use. Thousands of people made the mouse and no one of them knew how.
Finding a quotable quote is a challenge because all 359 pages are exciting and pithy. This is an antidote to the ever-popular doomsaying. Pessimism has been an easy sale for hundreds of years. Predictions for the end of the world transcend religion and take on mathematical precision during the very Industrial Revolution that disproved the claims.
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
by Matt Ridley (Harper, 2010).
“If this goes on…” by 2030, China will need more paper than Earth produces… we will run out of petroleum (of course)… we will be crowded, starved, polluted, ignorant; and the few survivors will be poorer than dirt to the end of their days. True enough, says Ridley. But the big “if” never obtains because the world is constantly changing, improving, getting better. “If this goes on…” fails because “this” never “goes on” but in fact is altered by something unexpected. Yes, there are dark ages, plagues, famines, and wars, but generally, since the invention of trade about 18,000 years ago, our lives have gotten exponentially better. Taking a word from Austrian economics, Ridley calls this “the great catallaxy.”
From the petroleum for the plastic to the software driver, each person did one thing; and it comes to you in exchange for the one thing you know how to do. The maker of the hand ax enjoyed nothing they did not get for themselves. (Among homo erectus including Neanderthal, it seems that both males and females hunted by the same methods.) The hunter-gather was limited to their own production – and so could not consume very much. We enjoy unlimited access to the productive work of others. Each of us has, in effect, hundreds of servants; and would be the envy of any warrior, peasant, chief, or king for our cheap, easy, and sanitary lives.
Each chapter begins with a graphic showing the exponential improvement in life span, health, prosperity, and invention. Another one shows the hyperbolic fall in homicides and yet another shows the dramatic decline in US deaths by water-borne diseases. Ridley examines barter and trade (“the manufacture of trust”), the agricultural revolution, urbanization, and the invention of invention. Each turn of the page overturns a common assumption. Just for instance, shopping for locally produced food more often results in less efficient use of petroleum; and, of course, it penalizes farmers in poor countries.
Ridley supports his claims with citations found at the back and linked to the page on which the assertion is made or fact is asserted. That said, it is important to keep your calculator handy.
The prolific Viscount Matt Ridley has several blogs. Here is his biography on his "Rational Optimist" site:
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/biograph...
Finding a quotable quote is a challenge because all 359 pages are exciting and pithy. This is an antidote to the ever-popular doomsaying. Pessimism has been an easy sale for hundreds of years. Predictions for the end of the world transcend religion and take on mathematical precision during the very Industrial Revolution that disproved the claims.
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
by Matt Ridley (Harper, 2010).
“If this goes on…” by 2030, China will need more paper than Earth produces… we will run out of petroleum (of course)… we will be crowded, starved, polluted, ignorant; and the few survivors will be poorer than dirt to the end of their days. True enough, says Ridley. But the big “if” never obtains because the world is constantly changing, improving, getting better. “If this goes on…” fails because “this” never “goes on” but in fact is altered by something unexpected. Yes, there are dark ages, plagues, famines, and wars, but generally, since the invention of trade about 18,000 years ago, our lives have gotten exponentially better. Taking a word from Austrian economics, Ridley calls this “the great catallaxy.”
From the petroleum for the plastic to the software driver, each person did one thing; and it comes to you in exchange for the one thing you know how to do. The maker of the hand ax enjoyed nothing they did not get for themselves. (Among homo erectus including Neanderthal, it seems that both males and females hunted by the same methods.) The hunter-gather was limited to their own production – and so could not consume very much. We enjoy unlimited access to the productive work of others. Each of us has, in effect, hundreds of servants; and would be the envy of any warrior, peasant, chief, or king for our cheap, easy, and sanitary lives.
Each chapter begins with a graphic showing the exponential improvement in life span, health, prosperity, and invention. Another one shows the hyperbolic fall in homicides and yet another shows the dramatic decline in US deaths by water-borne diseases. Ridley examines barter and trade (“the manufacture of trust”), the agricultural revolution, urbanization, and the invention of invention. Each turn of the page overturns a common assumption. Just for instance, shopping for locally produced food more often results in less efficient use of petroleum; and, of course, it penalizes farmers in poor countries.
Ridley supports his claims with citations found at the back and linked to the page on which the assertion is made or fact is asserted. That said, it is important to keep your calculator handy.
The prolific Viscount Matt Ridley has several blogs. Here is his biography on his "Rational Optimist" site:
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/biograph...
