Re:Dow plunges 1000 points
by PoachedSausage on Monday February 05, 2018 @06:19PM
(#16313159)
He missed out (5) Abundant fossil fuels.
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This is the real cause of economic growth. The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China industrialized at only a slightly slower rate then the West, despite not having much in the way of property rights or capital markets.
Without two hundred years of unsustainable consumption of fossil fuels, property rights or capital markets wouldn't have given us a fraction of the economic growth that we got. Stock exchanges don't do much for you when 97% of your population are either subsistance peasants, or make hand-crafted tools used by subsistance peasants, and you have to spend 8 hours a day banging rocks together to stay warm and to scare away mountain lions.
#4 is also only possible because of #5.