Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy Quotes

“In 1770, for instance, a famine in Bengal clobbered the company’s revenue. British legislators saved it from bankruptcy by exempting it from tariffs on tea exports to the American colonies. Which was, perhaps, shortsighted on their part: it eventually led to the Boston Tea Party, and the American Declaration of Independence.7 You could say the United States owes its existence to excessive corporate influence on politicians.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“The food surplus enabled larger populations and societies with specialists—builders, priests, craftsmen, but also specialist soldiers.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“Man-made light was once a thing that was too precious to use. Now it is too cheap to notice.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“As societies switched from foraging to agriculture ten thousand years ago, the average height for both men and women shrank by about six inches, and there’s ample evidence of parasites, disease, and childhood malnutrition. Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, called the adoption of agriculture “the worst mistake in the history of the human race.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“Indeed it did. But to dismiss the Luddites as backward fools would be unfair. The Luddites didn’t smash machine looms because they wrongly feared that machines would make England poorer. They smashed the looms because they rightly feared that machines would make them poorer. They were skilled workers who knew that the machine looms would devalue their skills. They understood perfectly well the implications of the technology they faced, and they were right to dread it.2”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“There’s little public clamor to judge people not by the color of their passport but by the content of their character.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“So bad decisions cast a long shadow. But the benefits of good decisions can last a surprisingly long time. And, for all the unintended consequences and unwelcome side effects of the inventions we’ve considered in these pages, overall they’ve had vastly more good effects than”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy

“And, second, with any new invention, it makes sense to at least ask ourselves how we might maximise the benefits and mitigate the risks.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy

“We can make two predictions, though. First, the more human inventiveness we encourage, the better that’s likely to work out for us.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy

“Switching costs can be psychological, too – a result of brand loyalty.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy

“If managers tend to have a bad reputation, what should we make of the people who tell managers how to manage?”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy

“So whenever a new technology emerges, it’s worth trying to ask who will win and who will lose out as a result. The answer can often surprise us.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy

“In 1775, Cumming patented the S-bend. This became the missing ingredient to create the flushing toilet—and, with it, public sanitation as we know it. Flushing toilets had previously foundered on the problem of smell: the pipe that connects the toilet to the sewer, allowing urine and feces to be flushed away, will also let sewer odors waft back up—unless you can create some kind of airtight seal.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“the Glass-Steagall Act made it a legal requirement for banks to hire management consultants.11 For a follow-up, in 1956 the Justice Department banned the emerging computer giant IBM from providing advice about how to install or use computers. Another business opportunity for the management consultants.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“Intellectual property has profoundly shaped who makes money in the modern world.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“Agricultural abundance creates rulers and ruled, masters and servants, and inequality of wealth unheard of in hunter-gatherer societies. It enables the rise of kings and soldiers, bureaucrats and priests—to organize wisely, or live idly off the work of others.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“More abundance can lead to more competition. If ordinary people live at subsistence levels, powerful people can’t really take much away from them—not if they want to come back and take more the next time there’s a harvest. But the more ordinary people are able to produce, the more powerful people can confiscate.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

“This book isn’t an attempt to identify the fifty most economically significant inventions. It’s not a book-length listicle, with a countdown to the most important invention of all. Indeed, some that would be no-brainers on any such list haven’t made the cut: the printing press, the spinning jenny, the steam engine, the airplane, and the computer.”
― Tim Harford, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy