
The Rational Optimist
How Prosperity Evolves
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Narrated by:
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L. J. Ganser
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By:
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Matt Ridley
Life is getting better at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people's lives as never before.
The pessimists who dominate public discourse insist that we will soon reach a turning point and things will start to get worse. But they have been saying this for 200 years.
Yet Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization, which started more than 100,000 years ago, has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair.
This bold book covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, from the stagnation of the Ming empire to the invention of the steam engine, from the population explosion to the likely consequences of climate change. It ends with a confident assertion that thanks to the ceaseless capacity of the human race for innovative change, and despite inevitable disasters along the way, the 21st century will see both human prosperity and natural biodiversity enhanced. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.
©2010 Matt Ridley (P)2010 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...




















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Absolutely fantastic
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must-read - intelligent and uplifting
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Also, I now will never stop thinking about ideas having sex, and what an important part of human progress that really is! Thanks Matt!
Ideas having Sex
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one of the few I read every 2 years
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Excelent!!!!!!
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Phenomenal read
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"Every once in awhile the human race pauses in the job of botching its affairs and redeems itself by a noble work of the intellect."
It's as if he had been thinking of "The Rational Optimist" when he wrote that, for it is certainly a fit description of this book. In fact, were I to have dictatorial powers, I'd compel everyone to read at least this one book, a la Mao Tse Tung.
Unlike Mao's "Little Red Book", however, this one exalts the wonders of the bottom-up system that has resulted, quite unintendedly, in the unprecedented global prosperity that we presently enjoy. A prosperity that is sadly too often either ignored or completely taken for granted.
I highly recommend "The Rational Optimist". If nothing else, to learn about the myriad wonders that adherence to the current popular ideologies have rendered invisible, though they are "hidden" in plain sight.
A noble work of the intellect
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Oh, I would pay multiples of what I paid for this book to see the author debate the likes of Bernie Sanders.
Magnifique !
Amazing perspectives throughout
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Excellent thought provoking book
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This book has a lot of good points
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