ECO 321 Lecture 3: Rise and Fall of World Empires 3
Document Summary
E(cid:374)(cid:448)iro(cid:374)(cid:373)e(cid:374)tal deter(cid:373)i(cid:374)is(cid:373): (cid:455)ou (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t get out of (cid:449)here (cid:455)ou started. Categories of resources: natural, physical capital, human capital/labour, entrepreneurship, technology. American exceptionalism: a concept in which americans believe they are the most intelligent and competent people on earth: as a result, they lose incentive to make themselves better, which makes them vulnerable to being surpassed. Slavery and advanced society: superficially, slavery does help a civilization advance because it offers the opportunity of large amounts of free labour, as time goes on, however, slavery can be a deterrent. When labour gets more expensive, people try to invent technology to reduce the labour force, and ends up advancing society that way. That invention of new technology would not happen if slavery were still in place to make labour free or very cheap. Began around 3100 bce in the nile delta, and ended around 760 bce.
