Rethinking Productivity Growth
According to conventional measurements, the world’s population is about 20 times richer than it was during the long Agrarian Age. But conventional measurements underestimate economic progress, because consumer choices now extend far beyond the goods and services that were broadly available back then.
BERKELEY – Today, the world’s population is, on average, about 20 times richer than it was during the long Agrarian Age. Between 7000 BC and AD 1500, resources were scarce, technological progress was slow, and Malthusian pressures kept almost all human populations at a near-subsistence level, with per capita daily income of less than $1.50 in today’s terms.