(still working my way through the mountain of FWk posts which acumulated during my christmas break...)
On Mon, 31 Dec, Steve Kurtz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [Harry Pollard had written:] >>The point is that a half millennium ago, it was possible to have a >>pretty good working life with high wages, so why isn't it possible now? >> >>So, there's my question for today. >> > >Two factors immediately come to mind. > >1. Mechanization (industrial revolution) harnessed non-human calories to >an increasingly greater extent during the 500 years. This decreased the >leverage of muscle in competition for money. Automation/Robotics is a >continuation of this. > >2. The number of available laborers increased by approximately 1000% >during the 500 years. Rapidly increasing the supply of potential labor >(at the same time that mechanization and automation were growing) >undoubtedly caused gluts to greater and greater extents than during >prior millenia of much slower population growth. Also, it should be remembered that the period immediately following the plague was like a paradise all over europe: all the infrastructure was in place for a much larger population. A small group of people essentially inherited a fully functioning civilization, and all the skills required to keep it going were in high demand. It was hardly a normal situation, and if people had "a pretty good working life with high wages", that was neither surprising nor maintainable. as Steve then quotes: > http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/worldhis.html > > > Historical Estimates of World Population > >(Population in millions. When lower and upper estimates are the same >they are shown under "Lower.") [table also snipped horizontally to fit 80 columns, discarding empty columns for eras quoted] >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- > McEv- > edy > --Summary-- Bira- --Durand--- and Thomlinson- UN, >Year Lower Upper ben Lower Upper Haub Jones Lower Upper 1995 USBC >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- [...] > 1100 301 320 301 320 > 1200 360 450 400 450 360 > 1250 400 416 416 400 > 1300 360 432 432 360 400 > 1340 443 443 > 1400 350 374 374 350 [ * ] > 1500 425 540 460 440 540 425 500 > 1600 545 579 579 545 Note the drop between 1340 and 1400. at the * there would be a second drop between 1440 and 1480. As these are world figures, the european figures would be much higher ratios, of course. -Pete Vincent
