A Discussion of Chapter 7 “Despite Doubts from the Left” Economic growth is the result of the Bourgeois Deal that allowed us to escape subsistence living, and yet the Left eyes growth with suspicion, concerns, criticism, and policies that would slow or stop it. Capitalism and the Hockey Stick In…
Category: Bourgeois Equality
Bourgeois Equality
Could It Be Income Inequality Is Not a Problem?
A Discussion of Chapter 6 “Inequality is Not the Problem” Last chapter, McCloskey argued the Great Enrichment has helped people across the income spectrum making the poor today in a developed country far better off than any time before. When Would You Rather be Poor? But that does not mean…
Bourgeois Equality
When Would You Rather be Poor?
A Discussion of Chapter 5 “The Poor Were Made Much Better Off” If you had to agree to be in the bottom 20% of income, would you rather do it now or in 1800? And would you rather be in France with a GDP per capita of $44,000 or N. Korea at $649…
Bourgeois Equality
Things are Looking Really Good. No, really!
A discussion of chapter 4 “As Your Own Life Shows” In the previous chapters, McCloskey has shown that before the Great Enrichment began over 200 years ago, all of mankind everywhere lived a subsistence lifestyle. Historically, Poor was Normal It was only after industrialization that technology grew at a sustained rate…
Bourgeois Equality
Capitalism and the Hockey Stick
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 3 “Then Many of Us Shot Up the Blade of a Hockey Stick” After establishing the last chapter that industrialization led to technological change growing output faster than population for the first time in human history, we return to the idea of the Great…
Bourgeois Equality
Are You a Malthusian?
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 2 “For Malthusian and Other Reasons, Very Poor” We established in the previous chapter that historically, people lived on a subsistence level averaging $3 a day for most of human history. Historically, Poor was Normal Now McCloskey wants to explore why and is starting with…
Bourgeois Equality
Historically, Poor was Normal
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 1 “The World is Pretty Rich, But Once was Poor” In my teaching and research, I keep coming back to the question of why an economy grows, with the hope of that knowledge helping those that don’t. Can Ancient Greece Help Developing Economies? Why Countries…