Industrial Revolution's uneven gains offer a cautionary map for AI prosperity
NinaDSchick · x · 2026-11-10
Nina Schick builds on an AI-and-economics thread via Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms: Malthus argued gains from technology were forever diluted by population growth until the Industrial Revolution lifted humanity out of the trap. But gains were uneven — raising low-skilled workers within industrialized nations while creating the 'Great Divergence' between nations. The accompanying chart shows incomes flatlining for millennia, then soaring in some countries and declining in others after 1800. A lens for thinking about how AI-created prosperity will be distributed.
Related event: Nina Schick draws lessons from the Industrial Revolution for the AI era(2 posts)→
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