Pio
+577 others
5 years ago
Destruction of wealth is a tragedy
"I think human ends are supreme. But I think we should agree that all else equal, it's good for humans to have tools. It's good for humans to have homes and so on. So whenever there's a destruction of wealth, this is a tragedy. Wealth is not bad. Some people believe in decadence and some people believe you can only create wealth by taking it away from someone else. I think neither is the case. I think all else equal you can make wealth. You can raise all boats and all else equal, wealth is not the thing that causes civilisational decline. And basically the difference here is that with civilisational collapse, there's a sudden massive destruction of capital. And with an intellectual dark age, there is a slow, ongoing, rising opportunity cost. If you want a mental image of the fall of the Roman Empire, you should imagine something like 200 years of GDP shrinking by about 1% a year. That's a more accurate picture than the barbarians burning everything down." source: video 
