The Great Innovation Deceleration
Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic could damage the worldâs collective brain.
The rise of the West is often traced back to the Black Death of the mid-1300s, which killed over 40% of Europeâs population. For example, some historians think that the resulting labor scarcity increased the bargaining power of peasants in the West, which led to the end of serfdom and to higher standards of living but failed to bring about institutional change in the East.
Many parallels between COVID-19 and the Black Death have been drawn, but most of them are unhelpful. In a medieval economy, fewer people meant more land per person and a higher income for the average citizen. The opposite is ...
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