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AN INTRODUCTION TO NIALL FERGUSONS LECTURE THE SIX KILLER APPS OF PROSPERITY

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THE GREAT DIVERGENCE The separation in wealth/innovation/etc. between the developing world (Asia, South America & Africa) and the West (Europe, North America & Australia). Ferguson wants to understand how this divergence occurred, what caused the divergence, and the future of the world economy now that the gap is closing.

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BACKGROUND TO FERGUSONS HISTORICAL REFERENCES Mughal Empire (1526-1857)

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BACKGROUND TO FERGUSONS HISTORICAL REFERENCES Ottoman Empire (12991923)

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BACKGROUND TO FERGUSONS HISTORICAL REFERENCES Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) First to write the Oxford Dictionary Documented behaviors and tics led historians to diagnose him with Tourettes Syndrome posthumously Famous British philosopher and author

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BACKGROUND TO FERGUSONS HISTORICAL REFERENCES Ibrahim Muteferrika Originally from Transylvania, a convert to Islam An Ottoman diplomat, publisher, courtier, economist, geographer, man of letters, astronomer, historian scholar and theologian. First Muslim to run a printing press with moveable Arabic type

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ITS NOT GEOGRAPHY East Germany/ West Germany Communism/ Capitalism Trabant vs. Mercedes Benz North Korea/ South Korea Communism/ Capitalism

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WHAT HAS CREATED THE DIVERGENCE? Ferguson says it is a societys ideas and institutions, not geography, that creates the Great Divergence. Adam Smith, not Sean Connery 1776, publishes Wealth of Nations

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COMPETITION Europe Political units China Uniformity Imperial civil service examinations

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SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION Europe Experimental method gave man control over nature. The Orient and Arab world Theocracy

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JOHN LOCKE AND PROPERTY RIGHTS Influential thinker of the Enlightenment Social contract theory The relation of natural and legal rights Theory of value and property Argues that the individual ownership of goods and property is justified by the labor exerted to produce those goods or utilize property to produce goods beneficial to human society. Fergusons example of indentured servitude Importance of property ownership.

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MODERN MEDICINE Modern Medicine Breakthroughs in curing infectious diseases Sorcery

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THE CONSUMER SOCIETY The Consumer Society The foundation of industrial society You want people to buy a lot of clothes. Propels economic growth, even more than technological innovations. Bare Necessities Mahatma Ghandi Leader in Indias nationalist movement 1915-1947 Swaraj: self-rule Sarvodaya: end poverty through improvements in cottage industry

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THE WORK ETHIC The Work Ethic Max Weber The Protestant Work Ethic Leisure Preference Now the preference of the West?

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THE KILLER APPS CAN BE DOWNLOADED The Great Re-convergence Is the West deleting its own apps? Does the sequencing of the download matter? Do these killer apps need to occur in a particular order? Africa- Libya Can China do without having property rights?