Learn: Week One - Why care?

What are 5 reasons we care about economic growth?

1. decline in absolute poverty 2. Inequality 3. changed lifestyles 4. food 5. health

A fact about absolute poverty

200 years ago 94% of the world lived on less than $2 a day but by 2015 less than 10% of the world lived on less than $1.90 a day

What about general poverty?

much of the world has moved further from the edge of subsistence in the last century, this offers a lever of security unknown throughout most of human history

How has inequality changed?

it hasn't really but evidence suggests inequality was already high before industrialization

What is a critique of per capita GDP?

it doesn't convey how fundamentally our lives have changed or how much value we place on goods

Fact about food

mid 1700s improved canned food and transportation 1870s refrigeration 1930s supermarkets (diversified consumption)

What is economic growth?

sustained increase in economic prosperity as measured by the total goods and services produced in the economy (key to alleviating poverty experienced by almost everyone who lived prior to 1800)

What to we care about

SUSTAINED not temp growth from peace or epidemic disease (increase wages for survivors)