In their new book Power and Progress, the MIT economists Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson use historical examples to show how technology is always used by the powerful to enforce their position and privileges. The Industrial Revolution, for example, did eventually lift workers’ real incomes, but only after 80 years. That revolution enriched the owners of the new means of production much, much more quickly. So quickly, in fact, that inequality exploded after the 1820s and riots based around revulsion towards the world created by the use of these new technologies.  A really good example of the impact of new…

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