One of the most wonderful things about following Mark on Twitter is reading the detailed Tweets he writes about politics, philosophy, economics and history. Mark responded to an attack on his principles with a look at the impact industrialisation had on GDP:
What happened at the curve of that graph… more of the same old statism or liberty?
— @MarkRPellegrino
So there’s no causal link between the industrial revolution and an exponential increase in GDP… ? There’s no causal link in a rise in GDP and wealth/thriving? Productivity is in no way linked to wealth? There’s no causal link between freedom and the industrial revolution? Or the fact that the two freest countries on earth were the first to industrialize?
So the fact that it cost say a week’s labor to have meat once a week vs an hour’s to have it multiple times a day is not a distribution of wealth? We can go across the board from tallow to whale oil to kerosine to electricity to see how much LESS work it took to have light… or vegetables. Or milk. Or clothes. Or ANY other commodity out there. That’s not just more money to the average joe… that’s more time. Good luck pretending that ain’t real.
— @MarkRPellegrino
As a native of the world’s first industrial city, I’m pretty familiar with the history of the industrial revolution and Mark’s words certainly ring true.