Rethinking productivity growth

Berkeley, United States

TODAY, the world's population is, on average, about 20 times richer than it was during the long Agrarian Age. Between 7000 BC and 1500 AD, resources were scarce, technological progress was slow and Malthusian pressures kept almost all human populations at a near-subsistence level, with per capita daily income of less than US$1.50 in today's terms.

In 2017, only around 7 per cent of the world's population is that poor. Consider a scenario in which we took the total monetary value of what we currently produce, and used it to purchase the types of goods and services that people living on US$1.50 per day consume. The average daily global-output value would be US$30 per person (at current prices).