Re:Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel (2012)
by digital_ins on Saturday October 29, 2016 @12:19PM
(#12824639)
kinda describes what's going on in developing countries too. The lack of innovation in developing country might have almost nothing to do with the previously popular and highly peddled concept of "inferior races"
Re:Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel (2012)
by api on Saturday October 29, 2016 @02:22PM
(#12825482)
Humans are wired for scarcity, but scarcity thinking is bad economics. We need to realize and own our power and start thinking in positive sum race to the top terms instead of fear based austerity terms.
Re:Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel (2012)
by dredmorbius on Saturday October 29, 2016 @09:45PM
(#12827629)
Alternatively, if the industrial revolution had been advanced by 1,000 years, we might be halfway through learning how long it takes to recover from fossil-fuel induced climate change.
Re:Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel (2012)
by dennisgorelik on Saturday October 29, 2016 @08:27PM
(#12827351)
Slaves are not really that cheap.
You have to feed slaves, train slaves, guard slaves (from running away and from being stolen by somebody else).
Slave labor is kind of an extreme case of the paradox of thrift. Slaves have no disposable capital and they flood the labor market down to zero. Slavery is like a permanent deflationary spiral. There is just no reason to innovate or invest in anything except conquest and luxuries, which describes most ancient cultures well.
Had the Greeks or Romans abolished slavery and set a minimum wage we might be flying to Proxima Centauri in a fusion rocket starship by now.