Daron Acemoglu, an Institute Professor at MIT, dives deep into the interplay of technology, inequality, and power dynamics. He discusses how technological advancements often initially exacerbate societal disparities, echoing lessons from the Industrial Revolution. The conversation touches on the duality of progress: while elites gain from innovations, there's potential for collective empowerment. Acemoglu advocates for proactive approaches to ensure technology serves the common good, rather than deepening existing inequalities.
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British Industrial Revolution's Impact on Workers
During the British Industrial Revolution, worker conditions initially worsened despite technological advancements.
Real wages stagnated, and life expectancy in cities like Manchester plummeted due to pollution and harsh factory conditions.
insights INSIGHT
Technology, Elites, and Extraction
New technologies empower elites to extract wealth, worsening inequality until institutions adapt.
This pattern repeats throughout history, demanding proactive intervention rather than blind faith in market correction.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Medieval Tech and Elite Benefit
Medieval technological progress, like windmills, often benefited elites disproportionately.
They controlled these technologies, banning alternatives and extracting wealth from peasants, who saw no improvement in their living standards.
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Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue that the success or failure of nations is determined by their political and economic institutions. They present a comprehensive theory based on 15 years of research, using historical examples from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, the Soviet Union, and various other regions to demonstrate how inclusive institutions foster economic growth and prosperity, while extractive institutions lead to poverty and stagnation. The authors discuss critical questions such as China's economic growth, the future of the United States, and the most effective ways to help countries move from poverty to prosperity[1][4][5].
Change is scary. But sometimes it can all work out for the best. There's no guarantee of that, however, even when the change in question involves the introduction of a powerful new technology. Today's guest, Daron Acemoglu, is a political economist who has long thought about the relationship between economics and political institutions. In his most recent book (with Simon Johnson), Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, he looks at how technological innovations affect the economic lives of ordinary people. We talk about how such effects are often for the worse, at least to start out, until better institutions are able to eventually spread the benefits more broadly.
Daron Acemoglu received a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics. He is currently Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Econometric Society. Among his awards are the John Bates Clark Medal and the Nemmers Prize in Economics. In 2015, he was named the most cited economist of the past 10 years.
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