The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves Review

It is highly fashionable nowadays to argue (or at least rhetorically assert) that human beings are degrading their natural environment at an ever increasing rate, so much so that it may one day become uninhabitable, and long before that it will so constrain human development that wars, disease, famine and civil strife will skyrocket. The triple whammy of financial meltdown, climate change and resource depletion will make the 21st Century a dismal time to be alive.

Matt Ridley respectfully begs to differ. Already the vast majority of human beings are much better off than they have been at any prior time in history. Even though formidable challenges remain to securing world prosperity, a person alive today has a much better chance of being well fed, adequately clothed, gainfully employed and entertained than at any previous time. Even the very poor in most developed countries enjoy luxuries that even kings could not previously procure, such as sewage disposal and running water, to say nothing of the fact that many of them have TVs, air conditioning, cell phones, etc. Vast inequality remains, but all things considered it is much better (at least in most parts of the world) to be poor today than it was to be poor in the Middle Ages, for example.

Ridley devotes the first part of his book to an examination of how we got here. How did human beings manage to escape, or at least continue to evade, the 'Malthusian trap' that keeps the population and development of other species down? Ridley considers in detail currently popular models (such as Jared Diamond's focus on geographical resources) but finds them inadequate. He argues that the crucial factor in the emergence of modern humanity was the development of specialized trade, not only of products but also of ideas. Being able to trade for certain items means that one does not have to make or procure them oneself, which encourages specialization. Instead of spending all day both hunting and fishing, for example, if you can find someone who's a better fisherman than you and can trade (some of) your hunting trophies for fish, the time that would have been spent fishing can now be better spent learning to be a better hunter, which means greater productivity. Up to this point it's Economics 101, but Ridley applies the same reasoning to the development of ideas and language. In a pithy turn of phrase, Ridley speaks of 'ideas having sex', the kind of combination and recombination of ideas that leads to innovation. Together, specialized exchange of products and ideas lead to the amazing technological and social developments we now take for granted (trade also encourages the development of social virtues like trust, which are essential for social cohesion).

Ridley then moves on to the present time, arguing that technology has prevented the human impact on our environment from being even greater, and is in fact restoring many parts of our environment. For example, modern agriculture allows human beings to use much less land for farming than they otherwise would have, which means more land can stay forested or wild. Water and air are also on the whole much cleaner around cities in the developed world than in the developing world. He makes a strong case that the best way to protect the environment is to cultivate prosperity, because only people with a fairly high standard of living can afford to care about their impact on the environment. People living at subsistence level will use whatever resources they can to stay afloat, even if they completely deplete them in the process.

It would be a Herculean task to summarize all the information, arguments and insights presented by this book. Ridley's coverage is encyclopedic and his discussion exhaustive on many issues. Suffice it to say that this is a powerful argument against pessimism and for rational hope, which however does not mean seeing the world through rose-colored glasses: Ridley acknowledges that there are real and formidable challenges to human prosperity and environmental health. But overall the human historical trend is in the direction of more innovation and greater prosperity, and there are few reasons to think that this trend won't continue into the future.

To summarize all of the book's insights and arguments would be a Herculean task, because Ridley's discussion is so wide-ranging.

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves Feature

• ISBN13: 9780061452055
• Condition: New
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The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves Overview

Life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down — all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people’s lives as never before. The pessimists who dominate public discourse insist that we will soon reach a turning point and things will start to get worse. But they have been saying this for two hundred years.

Yet Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization—which started more than 100,000 years ago—has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair.

This bold book covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, from the stagnation of the Ming empire to the invention of the steam engine, from the population explosion to the likely consequences of climate change. It ends with a confident assertion that thanks to the ceaseless capacity of the human race for innovative change, and despite inevitable disasters along the way, the twenty-first century will see both human prosperity and natural biodiversity enhanced. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.

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