How Prosperity Evolves (P.s.) - The Rational Optimist

optimistic view of the likely trajectory for humanity in the next hundred years. tears down a lot of nonsense that surrounds climate change alarmism and renewable fuels. no politically correct nonsense in this book thank God!

This is an excellent explanation of the importance of world trade and specialization in the growth of world wealth that has benefited millions, not just "the rich." You don't need to agree with Ridley's theme of optimism for the future to make this worthwhile to read. The book is much more than the title suggests. He uses an astounding array of historical and cultural examples to illustrate his conclusions. He also writes with good humor, always appreciated for a good read.

I was probably biased towards agreeing with most of the items brought up in this book, but all the same I think the research and ideas were well founded and explained well. And Ridley brings up some ideas about non-renewable energy and GMOs that certainly have me thinking.

Filled with excellent insights into human society. Starts to read a bit like propaganda at times. As a lover of Matt Ridley's works, I was somewhat perplexed by some of his views on climate change. Feel free to agree or disagree.

Amazingly enlightening book. The author argues his points exhaustively with research, wit, and entertainment. I think everyone at some point should take a break from the dismal popular media and consider these arguments.

Amazingly enlightening book. The author argues his points exhaustively with research, wit, and entertainment. I think everyone at some point should take a break from the dismal popular media and consider these arguments.

An interesting hypothesis about how science, technology, politics, religion, anthropology, and environmental factors have shaped the technological evolution of humanity. You don't need to be well versed in any of the factors listed above to appreciate the book.

Ridley has written an optimistic outlook for our planet and its population. He very competently reviews the developing technology and makes reasonable projections for how maakind can meet the challenges of the future on planet earth. Now we just need a charitable and cooperative spirit in mankind to realize this positive potential.

Unique review of the history of the human race and how trade, commerce and competition has brought immense benefits. For everyone convinced that life can only get worse from here, this book is essential reading.

The book seems redundant in the begining with the repeated message that specialization and trade is what brought prosperity to civilizations of the past. It then gets more interesting when it moved into modern times.

Unfortunately, I was right at this point when I left my kindle on the plane and am waiting to hear back from the airline to be reunited with this interesting read.

The book is exactly about what its title says. The reader will finish it completely convinced that our current world is much better than the past. The evidences, once organized as in the book, are too strong and too obvious. A must read.

From this book I gained a realistic world view. Matt Ridely talks about the world from a complete assesment of history and statistics and I am confident in his broad evidence. Please read this book if to want to understand how we have come so far. Read it and beleive we can go further

Matt Ridley does it again. A coherent and well thought-out narrative reminding us all of how lucky we really are in most aspects of life. We all too often take it for granted...and things will only improve!

This book explores a great many if the ideas that seem central to my reasons for doing things. I can give this book to people that think that I am completely crazy to have my opinions. After reading it, they will understand me.

Ridley's thesis is that the key to prosperity lies in economic growth, and that economic growth is caused primarily by innovation fueled by the exchange and mating of ideas. As long as ideas are allowed to move freely they will inevitably mate, mutate, and produce innovations that will drive economic growth and improve the quality of life:

"The perpetual innovation machine that drives the modern economy owes its existence not mainly to science (which is its beneficiary more than its benefactor); nor to money (which is not always a limiting factor); nor to patents (which often get in the way); nor to government (which is bad at innovation). It is not a top-down process at all. Instead, I am going to try now to persuade you that one word will suffice to explain this conundrum: exchange. It is the ever-increasing exchange of ideas that causes the ever-increasing rate of innovation in the modern world."

Why is Ridley a "rational optimist"? Because, in his words, he has "arrived at optimism not through temperament or instinct, but by looking at the evidence". As Ridley sees it, throughout history, when the free exchange of ideas has been hampered by natural disasters, disease, war, wrong-headed government policy and monopolistic business practices, the result has been a reverse in development and a regression of health and happiness. Despite these periods of regression, Ridley remains optimistic that the world will continue to get better as long as we ensure that society remains open. Recent developments in communication technology have only accelerated what Ridley sees as an already robust atmosphere for ideational mating. This, combined with the progress already achieved in medicine, agriculture, and human rights gives him more hope than not that as a global society we will avoid the many catastrophic predictions making the rounds.

Overall, the book was quite enjoyable. Ridley spares no sacred cows and marshalls logical and empirical evidence to make his point--whether he is eviscerating the organic farming and climate change movements or patent rights. He traces over 200,000 years of human history to make the case that we are, on balance, far better today than we have ever been. This isn't to gloss over the many problems that persist. Rather, Ridley freely admits the issues we face while arguing that the past should give us confidence that these issues will also be overcome. History has shown us that when ideas are allowed to freely move about and reproduce with each other, society is able to drastically improve itself and solve seemingly intractable problems. I would have liked to see more explicit discussion of ideational "mating", rather than it's sprinkling through various chapters, but overall the point is well taken. My biggest peave with the book is Ridley's treatment of government.

Ridley is clearly not a "big government" advocate, and that is a totally reasonable position. The idea that innovation and economic growth is primarily driven by bottom-up activity versus top-down planning and decree is correct. However, at many points in the book, Ridley seemingly fails to adequately wrestle with the fact that much of the progress he lauds is a by-product of optimal government policy, not despite it.

For example, when discussing how the country of Botswana could have developed at an incredible rate despite facing many of the same crushing obstacles as other perpetually underdeveloped African states, Ridley succintly notes that the main difference was that Botswana had "good institutions":

"In particular, Botswana turns out to have secure, enforceable property rights that are fairly widely distributed and fairly well respected. When Daron Acemoglu and his colleagues compared property rights with economic growth throughout the world, they found that the first explained an astonishing three quarters of the variation in the second and that Botswana was no outlier: the reason it had flourished was because its people owned property without fear of confiscation by chiefs or thieves to a much greater extent than in the rest of Africa. This is much the same explanation for why England had a good eighteenth century while China did not."

I agree whole heartedly with Ridley's emphasis on property rights. Here, he is following such eminent economic historians as Douglass North (whom he cites) by emphasizing that good institutions are critical to shaping the economic outcomes we hope to achieve. However, Ridley goes on to argue that property rights cannot simply be imposed from above by government, but must evolve from the bottom-up. The bottom-up evolution of institutions and the importance of government are not mutually exclusive or at odds. Optimal property rights, particularly those that allow for robust exchange in an impersonal economy, must at some point be formalized and enforced through fully functioning legal and court systems. Additionally, they must be codified in a such a way where they can be changed if necessary to improve their efficiency and functionality. The only way to formalize such rules, ensure their proper enforcement, and allow for occasional "tweaking" is to have in place a government system that is at once robust in it's authority and responsive enough to citizens to minimize the abuse of property rights (e.g. through the creation of a rentier class). In other words, liberal Democracy. This is not to say that governments are optimal or do not, in some cases, harm innovation and economic growth (surely they do). Rather, the point is that the dynamics that Ridley so covets cannot flourish despite government, but rather require "good" governments and institutions that can facilitate free idea exchange and commerce.

Interesting point of view. Indeed it is true that even those who live under duress today have a much better quality of life than say middle class people in the 1500s. I agree that technological progress has enabled and will continue to enable a longevous population worldwide; we however, have the responsibility of making such advances widely available. I also concur that the mirage of a life free of chemicals and genetically modified foods is that, a mirage... Not a page turner though...

Matt Ridley makes a thorough effort to counter many pessimistic theories and fears about the future even if he probably knows that his book won't sell that well compared to a pessimistic book. He makes many very interesting arguments and at the same time compiles many beautiful quotes from other, maybe more distinguished, authors like Romer or de Soto.
The only downside for me is that he somehow runs into the same fallacy as the pessimists, as he is only looking for proves that confirm his view. A good example is Nuclear power, where the cost of a nuclear fallout, which seems to happen every 30 years or so, are completely left away. I do not think that he is a lobbyist but he sometimes takes the same onesided view as his counterparts. The most beautiful thing about Ridley's book is the respect it shows versus mankind's capabilities and flexibility in a ever changing world.
All in all it is a great read and there are many paragraphs that I will take with me. It certainly has changed a few perceptions I had about human man kind.

I began a letter to The Australian on suicide with "We are the highest life form on the planet, and those alive today have opportunities unimaginable to our ancestors or other species. We should rejoice in this, but are still prone to despair." The rest of my letter is not relevant here, but Ridley makes it clear why we should rejoice, and why the many influential doomsayers are wrong. Ridley's style is very clear and accessible, if you read one book about how the modern economy works and brings widespread benefits, make it this one.

alternative view to the prevailing notion things are no better than they were. shows effectively that things are getting better and will continue to do so for some time despite government and media assertions to the contrary

Read an excerpt from this book and was fascinated. I was very pleased to find a Kindle version and have enjoyed reading "the rest of the story". In fact I'm thinking of using the book as the basis for a continuing education class at our local Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Thanks for making it available!

Perspective, perspective, perspective. How we view everything stems from our environment and this book just enlarged and enlightened mine. I've always been a "look on the bright side" and "count your blessings" kind of person, but this book takes that to a global level in a very factual and logical way. Very nicely done!