I don't think Pinker mentions property rights: that's very Lockean and Niall Fergusonian. It looks q convincing, esp. in the contrast between N & S American development 1600-1900, but one wonders if the concentration of property into much fewer hands mitigates it nowadays. Cheers
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Fewer hands? You think a larger proportion of society owned property in medieval times than now?
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Not at all. Ferguson refers to the incentive 4 indentured immigrants to America to do their time & then be guaranteed a piece of land after x years. Petty estates lead to competition & tech innovation then ind. rev - good argument. Yet it also leads to concentration of ownership.
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Well more people might have owned their own land in America in medieval times because there was so much of it but I don't know Native American history? Did individuals own land then?
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Dunno. I am referring to the European immigrants. Ferguson says that was the deal for the European settlers in the 16 and 1700s. 5 or 10 years of being an indentured servant, then you get your own amount of acres to do with as you please. + proto-democracy of the land-owners.
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That's the modern period. Did things get better or not?
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Of course. Ferguson ascribes progress to many having smallish shareholdings. My point is that the ownership has conglomerated into bigger holdings in fewer hands. So you have to ascribe progress since, say, the late C19th, to other variables - e.g. culture of science & tech.
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Which is a product of modernity. I don't know where you're going here. Do you think you are better off now than you would have been in the medieval period or not?
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Toilet paper.
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You could have stopped at dentistry and won hands down.
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Check your modern privilege! ;)
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Death by dysentery
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Converse with luddite numpties over Twitter without fear of them burning you as a witch or heretic. ;)
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