Summary of William J. Bernstein'sThe Birth of Plenty

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 There are four institutions that are prerequisite for economic growth: secure property rights, a scientific method, a capital marketplace, and rapid communication. #2 The world has gotten better in the past fifty years, not worse. The proportion of the world's population subjected to totalitarianism, genocide, starvation, war, and pestilence has been decreasing over the past two centuries. #3 The modern world seems to stagger under the load of ever-increasing population, with each year adding scores of millions of new mouths to feed.
Overcrowding on our planet is a recent phenomenon, an artifact of the world's newfound prosperity. #4 The Malthusian trap is the idea that as a nation's population grows, its food supply does not, and thus the standard of living is inversely proportional to the number of mouths to feed. If population increases, there won't be enough food to go around, and prices will rise while wages fall.