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Thursday, December 10. 2015

Material poverty is the human normal

Material wealth and comfort is an aberration.


Sowell on Wealth, Poverty, and Politic. Entertaining.





Posted by The News Junkie in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 14:07 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

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“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.”


― Robert A. Heinlein
#1 Eric Cartman on 2015-12-10 14:32 (Reply)
Rah, Rah, RAH!
#1.1 Sam L. on 2015-12-11 16:03 (Reply)
I just finished Trevelyan's 18th C Social History of England, in which he lists the enormous improvements in agriculture and manufacture over that time, in the most prosperous nation on earth at that point. (Okay, maybe Holland too.) At the end, the poverty was still enormous by our standards. Only the very wealthiest had what we would consider even an acceptable standard of living.

Fogel's Escape From Hunger and Premature Death 1700-2100 is highly recommended.
#2 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2015-12-10 16:16 (Reply)
Your recommendation is my command! Just found it for under $10 used.
#2.1 Texan99 on 2015-12-11 22:57 (Reply)
Thomas Sowell is a national treasure.
#3 mudbug on 2015-12-10 16:55 (Reply)
As are his research assistants.

Thomas Sowell: ... Back in nineteenth century Bohemia...

Peter Robinson: How do you know all this!?

Thomas Sowell: Because of my research assistants
#3.1 mudbug on 2015-12-10 17:03 (Reply)
The first government intervention in a downturn in the economy happened in 1930. The subsequent depression was Great.
#4 JK Brown on 2015-12-11 00:00 (Reply)
I saw plenty of material poverty in southern Morocco. Problem was that they didn't know they were poor, and seemed quite happy.
#5 BD on 2015-12-11 04:39 (Reply)
Thomas Sowell. What a man! We don't come better than this.
#6 Frank S on 2015-12-11 16:39 (Reply)

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