And this week's videos, we have learnt that economic growth was basically dismal for hundreds of years across most countries in the world.
However, something happened in the 18th century. Some countries started taking off.
In a dramatic change of fate, their economic growth accelerated rapidly.
We call this takeoff the era of modern economic growth.
With all of this growth to happen was a gradual improvement in technologies,
which in turn was facilitated by an economic system which with the special quality.
The ability to combine property rights firms and markets in such a way that most people do the best they can,
no matter where and how they're employed. We now call the system capitalism because capitalism channels resources to their most productive uses.
It has made possible the creation of ever superior technologies.
Those technologies are the way we combine inputs into the production process to get a unit of output.
Technological progress means we get increasingly more output with the same resources.
In other words, we're able to get the same output with far less inputs than before.
However, the period of modern economic growth was also accompanied by inevitable use of finite resources.
We have only recently begun to realise that our impact on the environment may be irreversible and that the time to act maybe is running out.
This is why we, the economists, have gradually began to change our view of the economy.
It's no longer only about how to use limited resources and putting them into the most productive uses.
It is also about realising that we need to use those resources in a way that
allows for a sustained economic growth if we want the future for our children,
which is at least somewhat better than our own.
In the next few minutes, we will expand on a variety of interesting on a very right of interesting questions,
but also on a very interesting question on its own. Why did the industrial revolution happen in Britain, not in the US, not in Europe and not in Asia.
Thanks for watching.
