HL 2—Wealth makes the world go round

2—Wealth makes the world go round
Note:2@@@@@@@@@CRITICA AL PIL

Yellow highlight | Location: 227

Where does value come from?
Note:IL CENTRO DELL ETICA

Yellow highlight | Location: 230

The universe exists—who had to pay for it?
Note:NN CI SONO PASTI GRATIS. FALSO

Yellow highlight | Location: 233

planet Earth somehow evolved from a bunch of trilobites to trillions of dollars in GDP and a Louvre full of paintings.
Note:LA NS SORTE

Yellow highlight | Location: 235

where free lunches might be hiding
Note:LA RICERCA

Yellow highlight | Location: 236

the dimension of time.
Note:CONCENTRIAMOCI QUI

Yellow highlight | Location: 240

Imagine, for example, an apple tree that yields several apples each year. The tree also produces apple seeds. The apple seeds germinate, resulting in a steady and indeed growing supply of new apples
Note:CRUSONIA...ESEMPIO DI FREE LUNCH X IL FUTURO

Yellow highlight | Location: 249

I see the Crusonia plant as an entry point for resolving aggregation problems.
Note:OBBIETTIVO

Yellow highlight | Location: 253

when in doubt, choose the Crusonia plant.
Note:PRIMO PRINCIPIO ETICO

Yellow highlight | Location: 255

namely ongoing and self-sustaining surges in value,
Note:Ccccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 258

Look for social processes which are ongoing, self-sustaining, and which create rising value over time. The natural candidate for such a process is economic growth, or some modified version of that concept.
Note:IL VALORE DELLA CRESCITA

Yellow highlight | Location: 260

in part because they ignore environmental sustainability and in part because they do not adequately value leisure time.
Note:CRITICHE ALLA CRESCITA

Yellow highlight | Location: 264

GDP should properly be measured in terms of maximizing the long-term rate of economic growth.
Note:VISIONE MODIFICATA DEL PIL X RISPONDERE ALLE CRITICHE

Yellow highlight | Location: 266

accounts for leisure time, household production (valuable activities you perform at home for free, be it mending socks or using Facebook), and environmental amenities, among other adjustments.
Note:WEALTH PLUS

Yellow highlight | Location: 267

Current GDP statistics have a bias toward what can be measured easily and relatively precisely,
Note:PIL BIAS

Yellow highlight | Location: 272

In this context, maximizing Wealth Plus does not mean that everyone should work as much as possible.
Note:MASSIMIZZARE IL PIL

Yellow highlight | Location: 273

A fourteen-hour work day might maximize measured GDP in the short run, but it would be less propitious over time
Note:SHORT RUN

Yellow highlight | Location: 277

We should therefore protect the environment enough to preserve and indeed extend economic growth into the more distant future.
Note:MAX WP...EFFETTI SULL AMBIENTE

Yellow highlight | Location: 280

The Shah of Iran, for instance, tried to bring his country into the modern age very rapidly. Growth rates were high for a while but in the longer run could not be maintained.
Note:L ESEMPIO DELL IRAN...TROPPO PIL POCO PIL US

Yellow highlight | Location: 285

although many people currently live in relative peace and prosperity, we should not take its durability for granted.
Note:WARNING TROPPO PIL POCO PIL PLUS

Yellow highlight | Location: 287

Sumeria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, the eight dynasties of Egypt, six civilizations in Greece, the Roman Republic and Empire, various dynasties and republics of China, four periods in Africa, three in India, two in Japan, six in Central and South America, and six in modern Europe and America.

Note | Location: 289

MICHAEL SHERMER...DURATA CIVILTÀ MEDIA 406 ANNI... DOPO ROMA 302....DATABASE DI 60 CIVILTÀ

Yellow highlight | Location: 293

Human beings can and indeed do experience significant and ongoing losses of their prosperity and freedom.
Note:LA DECADENZA È LA NORMA

Yellow highlight | Location: 297

military weakness, ecological catastrophe, famine, tyranny, and natural disasters,
Note:ESEMPI DI COLLASSI

Yellow highlight | Location: 298

Even if in principle the life of the noble savage were best, no society that follows this path can, on its own, keep its autonomy in the longer run.
Note:NECESSITÁ DELLA FORZA...IL RICCO TIRANNO E IL NOBILE SELVAGGIO

Yellow highlight | Location: 300

the more benevolent societies tend to be both richer and more technologically advanced—further
Note:FORTUNATAMENTE TOLLERANZA => RICCHEZZA

Yellow highlight | Location: 302

primitive warfare appears to have been at least as frequent, as bloody, and as arbitrary in its violence as modern warfare.
Note:WARFARE...UNA VIA SENZA SBOCCHI

Yellow highlight | Location: 303

Earlier societies were neither idyllic nor peaceful.
Note:Cccccccccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 304

we need to move forward rather than seek a static, quiet existence,
Note:SIAMO SQUALI

Yellow highlight | Location: 305

balancing progress and stability
Note:MA OCCORRE EQUILIBRIO

Yellow highlight | Location: 307

What can we do to boost the rate of economic growth? What can we do to make our civilization more stable? How should we deal with environmental problems?
Note:LE TRE QUTIONI...LIB.DESTRA SINISYRA

Yellow highlight | Location: 314

How good is growth, anyway?
Note:Ttttttttttttt

Yellow highlight | Location: 315

growth alleviates misery, improves happiness and opportunity, and lengthens lives. Wealthier societies have better living standards, better medicines, and offer greater personal autonomy, greater fulfillment, and more sources of fun.
Note:LA STORIA INSEGNA CHETRA PIL E PILPLUS C È CONVERGENZA

Yellow highlight | Location: 321

the U.S. standard of living has increased by a factor of five to seven, estimated conservatively,
Note:DAL 1900…NN CI RENDIAMO CONTO QUANTO SIAMO MIGLIORATI

Yellow highlight | Location: 324

occupant per room
Note:DI DEGUITO ALCUNI INDICATORI DI BENESSERE

Yellow highlight | Location: 324

persons per sleeping room.
Note:2

Yellow highlight | Location: 325

running water,
Note:3

Yellow highlight | Location: 325

refrigerators,
Note:4

Yellow highlight | Location: 325

gas or electric lighting.
Note:5

Yellow highlight | Location: 326

telephones,
Note:6

Yellow highlight | Location: 327

radio or TV.
Note:7

Yellow highlight | Location: 327

high school graduation rate
Note:8

Yellow highlight | Location: 327

high rates of disability or even death.
Note:LAVORO 9

Yellow highlight | Location: 328

hours of work a year;
Note:10

Yellow highlight | Location: 330

polio, tuberculosis, and typhoid
Note:11

Yellow highlight | Location: 331

Antibiotics and vaccines
Note:11

Yellow highlight | Location: 333

rates of infant mortality;
Note:12

Yellow highlight | Location: 335

life expectancy
Note:14

Yellow highlight | Location: 336

typical diet
Note:14

Yellow highlight | Location: 336

France had about the same energy value as that of Rwanda in 1965,
Note:Ccccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 339

Leisure time
Note:16

Yellow highlight | Location: 346

My smartphone is as good as his.
Note:UGUAGLIANZA...IO E BILL GATES

Yellow highlight | Location: 349

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
Note:BIBLIOGRAFIA...PINKER *****

Yellow highlight | Location: 351

trickles down,
Note:LA RICCHEZZA SGOCCIOLA

Yellow highlight | Location: 352

the bottom quintile
Note:CRESCE ANCHE PIÙ DEL PRIMO

Yellow highlight | Location: 354

richer economy can also do more to elevate the living standards of immigrants.
Note:ALTRI BENEFICIATI DAI RICCHI

Yellow highlight | Location: 359

Migrants will often return to their home countries, bringing new skills and new business connections.
Note:INTERCONNESSIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 360

India and Israel have developed vibrant technology and software scenes precisely because of their close ties with the start-up scene of the United States.
Note:UN ESEMPIO

Yellow highlight | Location: 363

New medicines and technologies developed in wealthy nations also make their way to the rest of the world,
Note:ALTRA RICADUTA....L ESEMPIO DELO SMART

Yellow highlight | Location: 369

economic growth has nonetheless brought wealth to the poor and elevated their status.
Note:LO SGOCCIOLAMENTO È LA REGOLA...LA VICINANZA AI RICCHI HA SEMPRED BENEFICIATO

Yellow highlight | Location: 375

recent increases in inequality within individual nations,
Note:L OBIEZIONE TIPICA NEL 2018

Yellow highlight | Location: 375

global inequality has declined over the last few decades,
Note:PRIMO FATTORE DI BILANCIAMENTO

Yellow highlight | Location: 379

recent world history has been an extraordinarily egalitarian time.
Note:L EPOCA IN CUI HAI VISSITO

Yellow highlight | Location: 380

how global economic growth helps the poor.
Note:LA STORIA CHE CI RACCONTA LA CONTEMPORANEITA

Yellow highlight | Location: 380

squeezing of the middle class in the wealthier nations,
Note:MA A NOI INTERESSA SOLO XHE....

Yellow highlight | Location: 383

Much of Africa is now following suit, bolstered in part by China’s demand for raw materials,
Note:PERSINO L AFRICA SEMBRA RISOLLEVARSI

Yellow highlight | Location: 386

during the early phase of the British Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century.
Note:FAPPRIMA MOLTE DISEGUAGLIANZE....MA INSISTERE È STATO UN BENE

Yellow highlight | Location: 391

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has promoted the idea of “capabilities”
Note:ALTERNATIVA AL PIL

Yellow highlight | Location: 392

Sen points out that our positive opportunities in life often matter more
Note:LIBERTÀ POSITIVA

Yellow highlight | Location: 397

Wealth and good social outcomes are still strongly correlated on average, and this correlation is stronger over longer time horizons.
Note:UNA MISURA UTILE?

Yellow highlight | Location: 398

if Kerala does not grow much in more narrow economic terms, it is unlikely to look so impressive in its social indicators
Note:ESEMPIO...TRATTO DA SEN

Yellow highlight | Location: 400

so many Keralans take jobs in wealthier countries, especially in the Gulf States,
Note:ESEMPIO

Yellow highlight | Location: 403

The truth is that economic growth is the only permanent path out of squalor.
Note:BOTTOM LINE

Yellow highlight | Location: 408

I myself have written of the great stagnation,
Note:CONFESSIONE....RALLENTAMENTO DAL 1973

Yellow highlight | Location: 411

economic growth and technological progress do not always arrive at a steady pace.
Note:SEMPRE A SINGHIOZZO

Yellow highlight | Location: 412

World history offers various precedents for the idea of a “great transformation”
Note:ESEMPIO DI SINGHIOZZI

Yellow highlight | Location: 414

agricultural revolution,

Yellow highlight | Location: 414

“urban revolution”
Note:MESOPOTAMIA

Yellow highlight | Location: 414

Industrial Revolution.
Note:GB

Yellow highlight | Location: 415

East Asian revolution
Note:TIGRI

Yellow highlight | Location: 419

a two percent rate of economic growth, as opposed to a one percent rate,
Note:POCA DIFFERENZA ORA MA SU LUNGO....TUTTA LA DIFFERENZA

Yellow highlight | Location: 420

redo U.S. history, but assume the country’s economy had grown one percentage point less each year between 1870 and 1990.
Note:ESPERIMENTO MENTALE

Yellow highlight | Location: 422

no richer than the Mexico of 1990.
Note:Ccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 427

once one starts to think about [exponential growth], it is hard to think about anything else.”
Note:LUCAS

Yellow highlight | Location: 429

much greater access to the arts and education.
Note:ALTRO PORTATO DELLA RICCHEZZA

Yellow highlight | Location: 430

minimizes the chance that their destiny will be determined by the time and place in which they were born.
Note:ALTRA VIRTÙ DELA RICCHEZZA...L AUTONOMIA

Yellow highlight | Location: 432

has there ever been a time in human history when so many individuals had such a good chance of becoming world-class scientists?
Note:CHIEDIAMOCI SOLO QUESTO

Yellow highlight | Location: 434

Benjamin M. Friedman, in his brilliant The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth,
Note:LA VIRTÙ SI DIFFONDE

Yellow highlight | Location: 439

Does economic growth make us happier?
Note:Tttttttttttttt

Yellow highlight | Location: 442

Recent research suggests that wealth boosts happiness
Note:TIMIDA CONFERMA....VALE ANCHE X I PIÚ POVERI TRA I RICCHI

Yellow highlight | Location: 443

Economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers,
Note:CHI

Yellow highlight | Location: 443

the most comprehensive study of the income-happiness link to date,
Note:Cccccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 445

income boosts happiness even at higher levels of earnings.
Note:NN C È SOGLIA

Yellow highlight | Location: 445

Angus Deaton finds similar results,
Note:IL NOBEL

Yellow highlight | Location: 447

suggests that additional riches do not make citizens in wealthy countries any happier, at least not above a certain level of wealth.
Note:UN VECCHIO PARADOSSO

Yellow highlight | Location: 448

evidence here is taken from questionnaires

Note | Location: 448

PURTROPPO

Yellow highlight | Location: 450

Some commentators argue that the curve flattens out
Note:OPINIONE DIFFUSA

Yellow highlight | Location: 453

The observation of a nearly flat happiness-wealth relationship says more about the nature of language than it does about the nature of happiness.
Note:TESI

Yellow highlight | Location: 455

if you ask the people of Kenya how happy they are with their health, you’ll get a pretty high rate of reported satisfaction,
Note:FELICITÁ E SALUTE...KENYA E EUROPA

Yellow highlight | Location: 457

Kenyans have recalibrated their use of language to reflect what they can reasonably expect from their daily experiences.
Note:PROBABILMENTE...LINGUAGGIO E UTILITÀ

Yellow highlight | Location: 459

often attach less ambitious meanings to the claim that they are happy.
Note:AMBIZIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 459

questionnaires will therefore underrate the happiness
Note:LOGICA CONSEGUENZA

Yellow highlight | Location: 461

treadmill effects.
Note:UN CONCETTO CHIAVE DELLA LETTERATURA

Yellow highlight | Location: 466

The wealthy develop higher standards for when they consider themselves to be “happy” or “very happy.”
Note:STANDARD

Yellow highlight | Location: 468

report does not mean that you spend all of your time envying
Note:ANCHE SE PL NVIDIA È UNA COMPONENTE

Yellow highlight | Location: 471

even a constant level of reported happiness implies growth in real happiness
Note:SE QS È VERO...

Yellow highlight | Location: 474

Many individuals strive to earn higher incomes, even after they have experienced the strength of aspiration and treadmill effects.
Note:LA RELAZIONE È POISUPPORTATA DALL OSSERVAZIONE DIRETTA

Yellow highlight | Location: 476

they know at a gut level that money will help
Note:Ccccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 476

Individuals value happiness for their families as well as for themselves,
Note:Cccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 478

within a country, wealthier people report unambiguously higher levels of happiness, on average, than do poorer people.
Note:E RICORDIAMOCI SEMPRE CHE...

Yellow highlight | Location: 484

a quick look at where most immigrants wish to migrate,
Note:EVIDENZA DELL EMIGRAZIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 490

it is better to envy your neighbor’s Mercedes than to envy his horse and buggy.
Note:CONCLUSIONE

Yellow highlight | Location: 492

Some people may seek temporary stimulations while others may want to feel fulfilled at the end of their lives,
Note:IL CONCETTO DI FELICITÀ È AMBIGUO

Yellow highlight | Location: 493

Some will seek happiness through the process of out-competing their peers
Note:Cccccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 495

Wealthier societies offer greater opportunities and freedoms to pursue preferred concepts of happiness,
Note:IL PUNTO FORTE DELLA RICCHEZZA

Yellow highlight | Location: 499

A wealthier economy will offer greater options
Note:MENTRE IL QUESTIONARIO CONSIDERA SOL UN TIPO DI FELICITÀ

Yellow highlight | Location: 501

A wealthier economy also gives us more “fleeting” experiences of happiness.
Note:GIOIE PASSEGGERE...LA TUA SQUADRA CHE VINCE ****

Yellow highlight | Location: 503

A diverse commercial economy offers more sources of temporary stimulation
Note:Cccccccccccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 504

more new gadgets, more entertaining videos, and more serendipitous encounters with interesting new people.
Note:MORE MORE MORE....SARÀ SUPERFICIALE MA SPIEGA LA MAGGIOR FELICITÁ

Yellow highlight | Location: 507

habituation and expectation effects.

Note | Location: 507

ATTUTISCONO IL LEGAME R/F MA NN ELIMINANO GLI EFFETTI POSITIVI DI R

Yellow highlight | Location: 510

most life catastrophes create significant misery.
Note:UN ESEMPIO DI CIÓ CHE CMQ SCAMPIAMO

Yellow highlight | Location: 511

The death of a child or close family member profoundly damages happiness for most individuals,
Note:ALTRO ESEMPIO

Yellow highlight | Location: 513

wars, revolutions, and collapses of civil order
Note:ROBA BELLA O MEGLIO EVITARE? CHIEDO A CHI OPPONE AL DENARO LA FELICITÀ

Yellow highlight | Location: 514

poverty is not the solution
Note:FINALE

Yellow highlight | Location: 517

the onset of a severe disability or physical handicap may cause individuals to alter their expectations for what their lives will be like. Some or even all of their initial levels of happiness may be reattained by lowering their aspirations,
Note:ANALOGIA

Yellow highlight | Location: 519

Nonetheless, victims of catastrophes still report lower levels of happiness than do comparable healthy individuals,
Note:Ccccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 524

Extra wealth also serves as a cushion against very bad events,
Note:ALTRA FUNZIONE DELLA RICCHEZZA

Yellow highlight | Location: 526

since the Greek economic crisis, dating from 2009, no one uses the Greek example to make a point about the flatlining of the happiness-income relationship.
Note:LA SOGLIA E LA GRECIA

Yellow highlight | Location: 529

Having some additional reserves of wealth prior to the crisis would have helped the country
Note:UNA RISERVA AVREBBE AIUTATO

Yellow highlight | Location: 532

happiness measures cannot pick up the benefits of greater life expectancy.
Note:I QUESTIONARI RIGUARDANO LA VITA QUOTIDIANA...ALTRO LIMITE

Yellow highlight | Location: 534

Life expectancy rises with wealth, but self-reports of happiness miss this benefit
Note:Cccccccc

Yellow highlight | Location: 536

happiness research draws upon a fixed pool of people living under relatively normal circumstances. This will limit its ability to measure
Note:NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Yellow highlight | Location: 604