“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck.”
This quote assumes that what held true for most of history holds true today, when machines and computers can complete the tasks necessary for ensuring the flourishing of our species orders of magnitude more efficiently than ever before. Why should we assume that poverty would be the normal condition of man today?
> Why should we assume that poverty would be the normal condition of man today?
Because if it wasn't for a complex network of trading & specialization, we would be in poverty. That network uses trade & profits to organize itself. Those machines and computers you cite are created and maintained by people who are seeking to make themselves wealthy. None of this is a given.
Free trade and specialization is what gives us the abundance we have today. Your average North Korean or Venezuelan standard of living is what you would observe if you forced people away from free trade & specialization.
I don't think people appreciate how delicate supply chains are, or how much starving and poverty would happen if trade was disrupted.
Indeed, but I also think that such a system also depends on having a civil society and a number of other things that are provided by society as a whole: The entitlement of corporations (e.g., liability limitation), the modern money system, and a relatively prosperous consumer class providing demand for goods and services. We're living on top of a huge pile of what can only be described as technology.
Consider cell phones. The richest person in the world could not have a phone that they can carry in their pocket and make a call to another rich friend from anywhere in the world, if not for the widespread consumer demand that drove the construction of the cell phone system.
This is known as "bad luck.”
This quote assumes that what held true for most of history holds true today, when machines and computers can complete the tasks necessary for ensuring the flourishing of our species orders of magnitude more efficiently than ever before. Why should we assume that poverty would be the normal condition of man today?