Extras: Henry C. Clark on Growth
When economists talk about "growth" they often mean it in a specific and positive way but the idea of "growth" is much bigger than that and we can ask big questions worthy of the topic. Alice Temnick gets us started.
Juliette Sellgren brings us another excellent conversation with the author, historian, professor, political economist, Henry C. Clark of Dartmouth College on the topic of his new book, The Moral Economy We Have Lost: Life Before Mass Abundance. Sellgren focuses her questions on the broad meaning of growth, what it represents, how it is measured and why we should care.
Listen to the podcast here: Henry C. Clark on Growth
Clark also offers a window into the process of course proposals in elite universities and shares how he was inspired by his students' interests in climate change.You might join Juliette in her enthusiastic approval and desire to be a student of Henry Clark’s. Enjoy a taste of the phenomenon of growth and please share your “take-aways” with us.
Clark also offers a window into the process of course proposals in elite universities and shares how he was inspired by his students' interests in climate change.You might join Juliette in her enthusiastic approval and desire to be a student of Henry Clark’s. Enjoy a taste of the phenomenon of growth and please share your “take-aways” with us.
- Henry Clark begins by recognizing four distinct debates about economic growth and its relationship to population, resource depletion, energy resources and climate change. Do you believe this lesson in the four-prong debate over growth could lead climate activists to connect their argument to Malthusian history?
- Adam Smith opens The Wealth of Nations with his elaborate description of the division of labor in a pin factory. That the specialization of labor in free, expanding markets leads to wealth, even opulence, is one of the biggest stories of the last 300 years but what’s missing from this story?
- Which is more important to focus on: Growth’s sustainability or Growth’s desirability? How might interdisciplinary approaches to this question differ?
- Thomas Malthus is famous for using the law of diminishing returns in his point about population growth. Less known is Malthus’s severe criticism of the Poor Laws of England incentivizing the externality of the poorest members of society procreating. What is Clark’s argument for suggesting that Malthus’s views on population are still not resolved?
- How does the irony of Clark’s book title, The Moral Economy We Have Lost: Life Before Mass Abundance address the positive ideas of Julian Simon, Deirdre McCloskey and other authors in this vein?
If you want to hear more from Clark and Sellgren, check out these other Great Antidote episodes:
Henry Clark on the Enlightenments
Henry Clark on Montesquieu