The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality

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A wildly ambitious attempt to do for economics what Newton, Darwin or Einstein did for their fields: develop a theory that explains almost everything ... an inspiring, readable, jargon-free and almost impossibly erudite masterwork, the boldest possible attempt to write the economic history of humanity A masterful sweep through the human odyssey…. If you liked Sapiens, you’ll love this. ”—Lewis Dartnell, author of Origins Completely brilliant and utterly original … a book for our epoch. ”—Jon Snow, former presenter, Channel 4 News (UK) Rather than saying that genes equal destiny, Galor’s message appears to be that whatever the circumstances you have inherited, change is possible. It’s an analysis of the human condition that leads not to a counsel of despair, but a new set of tools he believes can help build a better future. But is that all wishful thinking? I ask whether his innately sunny disposition means we should distrust his intuitions. “I think that I do have a positive outlook in my personal life. Naturally that must be projected on to the way that I view the world.”

Patricio Goldstein: We have a Mark Sanders here and who's asking. The fact that no crisis has yet been able to stop the march of humanity is no guarantee at all that impending crises will not do in the future. We would not be talking about the issue of Ukraine if such crises I don't have urged or developed. If the crisis spirals into nuclear conflict, we would see a crisis that threatens relentless march of civilization. Climate change as the same potential we have for the first time in history achieved the level of sophistication that can stop the march that got us there. Cannot institutions and cultural evolution move us away from this type of crises until a more sustainable path in time? Unified Growth Theory again aims to synthesise these different influences by concluding that “the mere appearance of abrupt cultural or institutional transformations conducive to development is in fact secondary to their ability to proliferate and stand the test of time, and in this context their interaction with geographical force has been critical”.Incredibly wide-ranging and detailed historical and even anthropological examination of the myriad factors that have brought success and failure to nations ... Lively and learned A landmark, radically uplifting account of our species ’progress, from one of the world’s preeminent thinkers. Not only a succinct, unified theory of economic growth since modern humans evolved, but also an engaging and optimistic answer to anyone who thinks that poverty and inequality will always be with us .”— Ian Morris, Stanford University’s Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor in Classics and author of The Measure of Civilization

Galor’s project is breathtakingly ambitious. He proposes a fairly simple, intensely human-capital-oriented model that will accommodate the millennia of Malthusian near-stagnation, the Industrial Revolution and its aftermath of rapid growth, the accompanying demographic transition, and the emergence of modern human-capital-based growth. And the model is supposed to generate endogenously the transitions from one era to the next. The resulting book is a powerful mixture of fact, theory, and interpretation.”— Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate in Economics

But ultimately, as we reach agreement a threshold, we see the operation of these water molecules and then transition from water to guys very similar in the course of human history. We see that there are circulating forces operating below will be below the surface. And this is basically the rate of technological progress and its impact on the latent demand for humankind. But since the ideological approach was initially so slow, we moved from one stone technology to another one. It doesn't require any human capital increase in intimate human capital is very small, and as a result of it, we do not see any of us. But ultimately up to three hundred thousand year period when we move from stone tool the analogy to steam engine technology changes being made. And then we see this dramatic eruption, namely a phase transition that allows us to move from stagnation and from the agricultural state of development to the industrial stage. So what we see behind dramatically is the concept of education. Namely, we are living in a particular state in terms of in terms of economic development. And then suddenly, the maturing equilibrium seems to vanish and we are gravitated into the modern growth machine. Now, when you think about the March of Humanity, broadly speaking, it appears that the March of Humanity to a large extent has been unstoppable. In what sense, if we think about shuttering and dreadful events in the course of human history, World War I, World War II, the Spanish flu, the Great Depression and most recently in COVID 19, poor people who lived through this crisis. These appear devastating and perhaps insurmountable. But what history teaches us is that in fact, many of these dramatic and devastating as they were and limited impact on the ground of humanity, the humanity recovered from these tragedies with great haste and continue its march forward. Now, in contrast to some conventional wisdom that exists in some circles, that are primarily based on misinformation, living standards had not increased gradually in the course of human history, certainly not since the Neolithic Revolution. What we see in the course of human history is that technology is advancing gradually in the course of human history. This technology is not resulting in greater economic prosperity. It has a negligible impact on living standards. Instead it contributes to the size of the human population, and in fact, the recent rise in the standard of living reflects what I will define as a phase transition, namely, an abrupt transformation once a critical tipping point has been reached.

Incredibly wide-ranging and detailed historical and even anthropological examination of the myriad factors that have brought success and failure to nations…. Lively and learned.”— Tim Hazledine However, such influence cannot offset the power of geography and agriculture. For thousands of years, crop types, biodiversity and the development of larger-scale agriculture were the causes of faster social and economic growth. Unparalleled in its scope and ambition…All readers will learn something, and many will find the book fascinating.” — The Washington Post He ends his recapitulation of the same argument here by asserting that “geographical characteristics and population diversity” are “predominantly the deepest factors behind global inequalities”, which sounds rather like we can’t do anything about them. Happily, at least, he does suggest that a country such as Ethiopia, which in his view is too diverse, might be helped by “policies that enabled diverse societies to achieve greater social cohesion”. Meanwhile, Bolivia, which is allegedly too homogeneous, could achieve better economic growth by being more diverse and so benefiting from more “intellectual cross-pollination”. And so, though it has often seemed as if we can do little about his hidden “great cogs” and “fundamental triggers”, it appears cheeringly in the end that politics and ideas might at least sometimes trump their effects on the story of how we got here and where we might go next. Astounding in scope and insight...provides the keys to the betterment of our species. ”—Nouriel Roubini, author of Crisis EconomicsBut the question is whether climate change, in fact, will be the most important and the most devastating catastrophe of all that will ultimately derail humanity from its long-run march. And here, the journey of humanity is providing some hopeful outlook. And the hopeful outlook is not based on a naiveté about the world. Naturally, climate change is quite a challenge, but nevertheless, the hope is coming from the following observations – if you should think about climate change it is originated by technological acceleration that is bringing about steam engine technology, industrialization, industrial pollution and climate change. But this technological acceleration, as I’ll argue momentarily, is associated with additional forces. It is associated with human capital formation. Society is much more educated and as a result, we can understand the looming catastrophe that is associated with climate change and perhaps reform behaviors accordingly. But perhaps most importantly, it is associated with the power of innovatio And again, the curriculum should focus on how to foster future oriented mindset, how to foster the ability to delay gratification. We do it in the contemporary society by, by either forcing or inducing our children to to learn how to use an instrument where naturally the return is sufficiently large and this is induces a long term orientation and we can do it in different forms. But again, this is education policy. It will be based on the history of the place. Naturally, if you live in a place where future oriented mindset was part of the heritage of the place, this would be a waste of resources. Think about gender equality, as we said earlier. There are certain regions of the world. In which Flow was used relatively early due to the suitability of the land for the use of the plant. And this ultimately generated the division of Labor, where men were engaged in agricultural production due to the physiological advantage in men in carrying this heavy clouds. Now in this type of societies. Focusing on gender equality will be instrumental. So, perhaps surprisingly, the journey of humanity, the book and the reality. Is basically suggesting to us that progressive policies such as gender equality, tolerance and diversity all the key for human prosperity. So typically when we think about progressive policies, we think about them in the context of our moral values. And I'm suggesting here that in this particular instance, in fact, the two coincide, namely those traits or those elements, those policies that are progressive and morally based are the ones that are instrumental for the prosperity of nations across the globe. Thank you very much. Just like the theories that promise to tie together all of physics or any other science, Galor’s work aims to make the world’s economic trajectory seem logical, even inevitable.”— American Banker

Insights into two important questions: Why has the world suddenly become so wealthy, and why is there vast inequality between nations?It was at that point, 7months in to the project that another came about, maybe I could keep laying down more cloth to make the painted area larger until it was so big that it could potentially become a Guinness World Record. I felt this may help in getting more attention for the project, it’s cause, and my eventual final painting. I then approached Guinness and asked them if it might be possible to set a new world record for this. Fate was on our side as Guinness explained that as this mess, currently lying on several cloths in my new studio on the ballroom floor of Atlantis, was not an actual painting as it was made of several cloths on the floor but this could become the new Guinness World Record for ‘The Largest Art Canvas in the World’. However, for this record it would need to be over 17,000 Square Feet. I then decided to go for this record with the project initiative named ‘Humanity Inspired’ where I could hold a new Guinness World Record aiming to draw attention to the project and it’s cause that might be able to inspire humanity to reconnect towards a like-minded goal of love, empathy, equality, and compassion for those most in need, during this particularly difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic. Completely brilliant and utterly original ... a book for our epoch. ”—Jon Snow, former presenter, Channel 4 News (UK) The stunning advances that have transformed human experience in recent centuries are no accident of history - they are the result of universal and timeless forces, operating since the dawn of our species. Drawing on a lifetime's scientific investigation, Oded Galor's ground-breaking new vision overturns a host of long-held assumptions to reveal the deeper causes that have shaped the journey of humanity: Newton began the modern search for the TOE, arguing that the movement of planets and the rhythm of waves could be explained by a universal theory of gravity. Einstein spent the last 30 years of his life searching for such a grand framework, seeking to create a theory that could combine the existence of gravity with an explanation of the forces that occur between electrically charged particles. Galor is explicit in drawing the parallels between this project and the efforts to create a scientific TOE, contending that his theory has a similar focus on fundamental forces that explain the entire process of economic development.