It isn’t just informative for “developing” nations, but also for “developed” nations. To assume we have reached some endpoint of development is absurd, particu

It isn’t just informative for “developing” nations, but also for “developed” nations. To assume we have reached some endpoint of development is absurd, particularly given historical precedent. The article posits that industrialisation was spawned out of necessity due to a shortage of unskilled labour, and an excess of underemployed capital. I find it interesting that the U.K. finds itself once again at a not dissimilar crossroads, with a shortage of unskilled and skilled labour, and with an excess of underemployed, concentrated capital. Growth is sclerotic, the political situation is fragile, and inflation runs rampant. Meanwhile, new technology developed over the preceding century has enabled new possibilities, hitherto unimagined and as yet unrealised. In history, when exposed to severe stressors, societies typically either flourish or collapse. Collapse has become less common in the industrialised, interconnected world, so it’s not an unreasonable hypothesis that perhaps the U.K. will somehow find itself at the forefront of a new productivity revolution.