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Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
The demographic dividend is inherently time limited but its positive consequences can endure well beyond its end. As the large cohorts of working-age population age and retire, the dividend first recedes and then it disappears, but it can have a longer-term economic effect if the temporary gains were invested in infrastructures, education, health,
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the size of the population residing in the country’s nth largest city is equal to 1/n of the largest city’s total, corresponding to a power law with a coefficient of –1
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
Abundance of material possessions, frequent travel and massive information flows are among the most notable accomplishments of modern civilization,
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
Given the history of rising agricultural and manufacturing productivities, it was inevitable that most people in modern societies will end up doing something other than growing food and making things.
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
In the common (albeit misleading) terminology, no industrial revolution could have taken place without the preceding agricultural revolution. This labor push factor was potentiated by the effect of the already noted Engel’s law: reduced share of spending on food can be used to buy more manufactured products. Second, new opportunities in industrial
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In 1900 7.2% of the US non-farm labor force worked for government (federal, state, and local), by 1950 that share was 13.3%, and by 2016 it rose only marginally to 14.2%
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
The average American now reads only four books a year, and a quarter of Americans do not read any books (Pew Research Center 2018).
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
A conservative global estimate is that commuting by some 2.5 billion people spending 50 minutes a day adds up annually to nearly 60 million years of life, an enormous waste of human potential and generally a detestable experience that is commonly accompanied by stress and discomfort