Dr. Richard Vedder, Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Ohio University and Director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, penned a Nov. 10 column in the Wall Street Journal on “The Genesis of Prosperity: What brought about the Great Enrichment? And why did it start in England? It had a culture that embraced change and scientific inquiry.”
Dr. Richard Vedder
Vedder reviewed the Joel Mokyr’s book, “Culture of Growth.”
Life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” Thomas Hobbes proclaimed in 1651, and it had been that way ever since humans had inhabited the Earth. At the time Hobbes wrote those words, life expectancy averaged about 30 years old in his native England and income per person typically was around $5 a day (in 2016 dollars). Thanks to the Industrial Revolution and the Great Enrichment that followed, the typical subject of Queen Elizabeth II lives to almost 80 and has an income of over $100 a day. Perhaps more impressively, most people in the world today face the prospect of living at least that well within a generation or two.
What brought about the Great Enrichment? And why did it all start in England? Joel Mokyr, in his fine book, attributes it to the unique and productive culture that evolved there. It was a culture that welcomed change and favored scientific inquiry that spurred radical technological improvements. To Mr. Mokyr, the forming of physical capital and the expansion of the division of labor through trade—sometimes called Smithian growth after Adam Smith—was not in itself adequate to get more than a modest increase in output. Critical were new ways of doing things, new products and new techniques.
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