Comment by blackhawkC17
14 days ago
> Most of the benefits of industrializations has gone to the elites. Just like colonialism and slavery.
The average individual is much better off economically and has a higher quality of life in an industrialized economy than one built on slavery.
I’m not arguing that slavery was good, but that it was orthogonal to industrialization. Virtually all countries practiced slavery at some point, but most didn’t industrialize.
Industrialization began with Britain running out of firewood and switching to coal as an alternative energy source. Steam engines were fine tuned to pump water out of coal mines, and people gradually began using steam engines to power other things, kickstarting the revolution.
My point is that Europe would have industrialized with or without slavery.
Thanks for picking North Korea as an example…a country where 43.5% works in agriculture and only a mere 14% in industry [1], compared to the much richer South Korea where only 5% work in agriculture [2]. It remains obvious that any economy built mainly on manual labor (slavery included) will be as mediocre as North Korea’s.
I understand your point, but not sure I would accuse those that misinterpret these things of lying. Many people are educated enough to know that the massive explosion in human advancement was heavily fueled by exploitation of some kind. They simply don't understand exactly what those exploitations are and the resulting effects they've had.