The Future of Capitalism in EU: Essay questions
Seminar 1 (05-04-17)
1. What Bregman means with ‘two centuries of stupendous progress’ is that when we
look at how humanity lived most of human history, the last two centuries almost seem
unreal. For most of human history, humanity had a brief and ugly life. But the
industrial revolution changed all that. In a relatively short amount of time the average
human life changed dramatically. Some examples of this enormous progress are for
instance that in the 1820s 94% of the population still lived under the poverty line
compared to less than 10% now. Other examples are the Argus II brain implant
which allows people who are genetically blind to see again, robotic legs through
which some disabled people can walk again, the bringing back of extinct species in
the lab through their dna, driverless cars, people who can operate robotic arms with
only a chip planted in their brain and the mass availability of cheap solar energy.
These technological improvements might seem tiny though when we discover that
the implementation of vaccines for polio, measles, whooping cough, tetanus and
diphtheria save millions of lives each year. This is the stupendous progress which
Bregman is talking about.
2. Bregman claims the global economy is now 250 times the size it was before the
Industrial Revolution. How do you think he made this calculation? I'm not sure how
Bregman came up with this number because when you take his estimate of a 1600
dollar average income before the industrial revolution and multiply it with the world
population at that time of about a billion people. The world economy is only 43 times
the size of that day. Now if he would be talking about the worth of capital around the
world we would get closer to a 250 times bigger economy.
3. Check 'gapminder.com' and fiddle around with the data/graphs.Try and come up with
an interesting correlation besides income and life expectancy. When you take the
amount of babies per woman and the income another correlation is apparent. Around
1800 a woman had an average of about 6 babies in her lifetime. Now when you let
time roll away it shows the gradual increase in income having a very large effect on
the birth rate. The richer a country gets, the lower the amount of babies a woman
has. From 6 to 2 is quite a difference in a lifetime.
4. Watch the first episode of Jared Diamond's 'Guns, Germs & Steel' series. What is
Diamonds's answer to Yali's question about the origin of material inequality (in terms
of 'cargo')? Use the term 'specialisation' in your answer. Diamonds thinks that the
amount of cargo is directly correlated with the ability of a civilization to produce so
much food that there is a surplus. This will mean that some people do not have to
work to produce their own food, but can instead spend time and effort to specialize in
all sorts of directions. They might develop the ability to produce iron tools, better
Seminar 1 (05-04-17)
1. What Bregman means with ‘two centuries of stupendous progress’ is that when we
look at how humanity lived most of human history, the last two centuries almost seem
unreal. For most of human history, humanity had a brief and ugly life. But the
industrial revolution changed all that. In a relatively short amount of time the average
human life changed dramatically. Some examples of this enormous progress are for
instance that in the 1820s 94% of the population still lived under the poverty line
compared to less than 10% now. Other examples are the Argus II brain implant
which allows people who are genetically blind to see again, robotic legs through
which some disabled people can walk again, the bringing back of extinct species in
the lab through their dna, driverless cars, people who can operate robotic arms with
only a chip planted in their brain and the mass availability of cheap solar energy.
These technological improvements might seem tiny though when we discover that
the implementation of vaccines for polio, measles, whooping cough, tetanus and
diphtheria save millions of lives each year. This is the stupendous progress which
Bregman is talking about.
2. Bregman claims the global economy is now 250 times the size it was before the
Industrial Revolution. How do you think he made this calculation? I'm not sure how
Bregman came up with this number because when you take his estimate of a 1600
dollar average income before the industrial revolution and multiply it with the world
population at that time of about a billion people. The world economy is only 43 times
the size of that day. Now if he would be talking about the worth of capital around the
world we would get closer to a 250 times bigger economy.
3. Check 'gapminder.com' and fiddle around with the data/graphs.Try and come up with
an interesting correlation besides income and life expectancy. When you take the
amount of babies per woman and the income another correlation is apparent. Around
1800 a woman had an average of about 6 babies in her lifetime. Now when you let
time roll away it shows the gradual increase in income having a very large effect on
the birth rate. The richer a country gets, the lower the amount of babies a woman
has. From 6 to 2 is quite a difference in a lifetime.
4. Watch the first episode of Jared Diamond's 'Guns, Germs & Steel' series. What is
Diamonds's answer to Yali's question about the origin of material inequality (in terms
of 'cargo')? Use the term 'specialisation' in your answer. Diamonds thinks that the
amount of cargo is directly correlated with the ability of a civilization to produce so
much food that there is a surplus. This will mean that some people do not have to
work to produce their own food, but can instead spend time and effort to specialize in
all sorts of directions. They might develop the ability to produce iron tools, better
