Wow. Take a look at that chart. So what happened in the last 200 years? Among other things:
What changed were habits of the lip. It’s not a “rise of the bourgeoisie,” but a rise in other people’s opinion of the bourgeoisie that makes for economic growth — as it is now doing in China and India. When people treat the marketeers and inventors as having some dignity and liberty, innovation takes hold. It was so to speak a shift in “constitutional political economy,” as James Buchanan puts the point. People agreed on the meta-rule of letting the economy go where it will. This contrasted with the earlier mentality, still admired on the left, that treats each act of innovation as an occasion to go looking for its victims. Victims there were, but they were greatly outnumbered by winners. It was ideas, not matter, that made the winners, and brought our ancestors from $3 to over $100 a day.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, some people don't get that simple connection. Value those who cause growth and let them know you value them, and they will create more growth.
Comments
A century ago, moms stayed home, cooked meals from scratch, sewed most clothes, and provided childcare for the family, none of which got counted in GDP.
Today's moms are part of the workforce. The family buys prepared foods, or eat out, weat factory-made clothes, owns a second car to commute with, and the kids go to Kindercare. I'm not opposed to people finding their work fulfilling, but we're counting the productivy of that second wafe-earner twice, once as she earns a dollar, and again as she spends that dollar, and a century ago, her productivity wasn't counted.
Which means that chart is a lie. Maybe the prson who created it had the best of intentions. but it's a lie, none the less.