The fragility of agrarian societies of domination, Elon Musk's disgusting algorithm, The Biden-Powell A vs. the Obama-Bernanke C, & Zack Beauchamp on the genocidal ideology of Hamas; annular solar...
Economic History Watch: To continue, depopulation for various reasons (drought, climate change, plague etc.) was usually bad news for workers. Employment arrangements tend to become more exploitative when that happens. Those who are in power would rather not pay high wages that result from depopulation and labor scarcity. They'd rather control the mobility of labor instead. That quickly devolves into bondage/serfdom/slavery types of scenarios. If I am recollecting correctly, Douglass North coauthored at least one paper that studied how labor contracts evolved from feudalism through the industrial revolution. A key issue in those contracts was how freely workers were available. My own inference was that population growth over the past two centuries or so essentially got us out of feudal-type contracts, for workers were easy to come by, making it unnecessary to pin anyone down to the land and its Lord (in exchange for security). Modern-day Malthusians may want to see that there's a silver lining to having more people around. The distant past with relatively low levels of population was not idyllic, especially for labor and living standards.
Economic History Watch: You're probably not cherry picking. That fragility due to depopulation comes through in Evsey Domar's classic 1969 paper on the causes of slavery/serfdom as well.
Karfp: The reason we do not have cheaper nuclear and geothermal power or an intercontinental electric grid, or congestion taxes in our major cities. or taxes on CO2 emissions, or mRNA vaccines sooner, or high-ish speed rail between Richmond and Boston is NOT because people lost money on crypto-grifs.,
No macroeconomic blame for Obama; no macroeconomic credit for Biden. Powell B+; Bernanke-Yellen C- [F for the whole Fed. I assume Bernanke Yellen were TRYING to undershoot inflation less]
Wolf: Higher interest rates are not a matter of "belief" but policy. Will governments choose to tax consumption more, especially consumption of goods and services whose production require emissions of CO2.
Economic History Watch: To continue, depopulation for various reasons (drought, climate change, plague etc.) was usually bad news for workers. Employment arrangements tend to become more exploitative when that happens. Those who are in power would rather not pay high wages that result from depopulation and labor scarcity. They'd rather control the mobility of labor instead. That quickly devolves into bondage/serfdom/slavery types of scenarios. If I am recollecting correctly, Douglass North coauthored at least one paper that studied how labor contracts evolved from feudalism through the industrial revolution. A key issue in those contracts was how freely workers were available. My own inference was that population growth over the past two centuries or so essentially got us out of feudal-type contracts, for workers were easy to come by, making it unnecessary to pin anyone down to the land and its Lord (in exchange for security). Modern-day Malthusians may want to see that there's a silver lining to having more people around. The distant past with relatively low levels of population was not idyllic, especially for labor and living standards.
Élites certainly tried to tighten the screws. When and whether they succeeded is a very interesting and complex question.
True, you're right. And I haven't studied this issue enough to say that there was just one possible outcome everywhere/everytime.
Economic History Watch: You're probably not cherry picking. That fragility due to depopulation comes through in Evsey Domar's classic 1969 paper on the causes of slavery/serfdom as well.
Central Coountry: Lesson: subsidize/tax the positive/negative externality, not somewhere in the feel-good vicinity of the externality.
Karfp: The reason we do not have cheaper nuclear and geothermal power or an intercontinental electric grid, or congestion taxes in our major cities. or taxes on CO2 emissions, or mRNA vaccines sooner, or high-ish speed rail between Richmond and Boston is NOT because people lost money on crypto-grifs.,
No macroeconomic blame for Obama; no macroeconomic credit for Biden. Powell B+; Bernanke-Yellen C- [F for the whole Fed. I assume Bernanke Yellen were TRYING to undershoot inflation less]
Wolf: Higher interest rates are not a matter of "belief" but policy. Will governments choose to tax consumption more, especially consumption of goods and services whose production require emissions of CO2.