Vince Conyer at the American Thinker today noted that Leftists Disconnected From How Things Work Are Destroying Everything. It is true that a lot, maybe even a majority of these Leftist bastards are people who produce nothing. I don't mean that they produce nothing, but rather nothing of any practical use. The world would not notice if they stopped. But if they succeed in turning us back to a pre-industrial society, these are the very people who would not survive because they have no skills. Life was, as Thomas Hobbs noted, nasty, brutish and short.
Conyer takes us on a brief history of innovation and invention, what we would call today call "technology" that revolutionized the way we live. In the process, we rose from living an average of 30 years, to 47 years at the turn of the 20th century, to today at close to 80 years. It is a remarkable feat.
I’ve always been a fan of the prosperity created by Western civilization in general and the United States in particular. Indeed, I even created a website called Gratitude for America, where I write about American entrepreneurs who invented things like barbed wire and standardized shipping containers. But maybe there’s a downside to this prosperity because we’ve created a class of people (especially in government) completely disconnected from how the world actually works.
Cyrus McCormick, who invented the mechanical reaper, is the most important entrepreneur in human history. He basically untethered mankind from farming, one of the most dangerous occupations on earth. In 1831, when he invented the mechanical reaper, approximately 80% of the American population was involved in agriculture, and, in most places in the world, it was higher—in some cases, 95%.
Back then, farming’s efficiency hadn’t changed much since the time of the pyramids. A man, using a scythe, could harvest approximately one acre of grain a day. Fifty years later, McCormick guaranteed that, by using his machine, a farmer could harvest 15 acres a day. With today’s machines, a farmer can harvest up to 100 acres in a day. Small wonder that only 3% of the US population today farms.
The reason McCormick is so important is not because of farming, per se, but because he freed up most of the population to go out and do other, less dangerous things. With that shift, work-life expectancies began to skyrocket in the latter half of the 19th century. In 1800, the average life expectancy was approximately 30 years, with Europe averaging 33 and the US close behind. By 1900, the world average had increased to 32, but in Europe it had jumped to 43 and in the US to 47.
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In the 20th century, things really took off. Today, a quarter of the way through the 21st century, world life expectancy is 72 years, while in the US, it’s 78, and in Western Europe, it’s above 80.
Not only are we living longer, but we’re also prosperous beyond anything in human history. Our food is more varied, dependable, and plentiful than ever. We have transportation, hospitalization, housing, employment, clothing, education, sanitation, entertainment, and leisure opportunities exponentially beyond anything in all of human history.
It is important to know how recent all this is. My father and grandfather together lived through the transition from horse and mule power to today's mechanization. To illustrate, WWI, my grandfather's war, was fought with horse cavalry. By WWII the fighting was with armored cavalry. All of this mechanization freed the majority of people to do something other than daily slave to find food and water. Enough used that freedom wisely to improve life for everyone else. But some used it poorly and tried to tear down what they could not build.
The average Westerner’s life is far superior to any experienced by 99.999% of the people who ever lived, but, somehow, everyone today is a victim—and we know that everyone is a victim because the elites tell us so. Through schools, media, and government, we’re told that Western culture is racist, sexist, fascist, or somehow otherwise oppressive. Basically, the better things get, the worse they get.
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The reason those elites, the ones who seek to manipulate the public, get away with it is because a significant portion of the population believes them. And they believe them because of the division of labor-driven prosperity that McCormick unleashed.
Virtually the entire left in this country has zero connection with anything having to do with creating anything, growing anything, building anything, or risking anything. They spend their days pushing paper in offices or selling cappuccinos, if they work at all. Not only are few of them farmers, but few are truckers, lumberjacks, steel workers, plumbers, electricians, or entrepreneurs. Few have ever had to balance paying a credit card bill versus making payroll. Few ever risked their money and invested sweat equity to start a business.
There was a program on the Discovery Channel several years ago called Dirty Jobs, hosted by Mike Rowe. Each week Rowe would take us to somewhere a person was doing a dirty and dangerous, but necessary job. These jobs were necessary to keep America running. The WEFers should have watched that show to see how many unnoticed things are necessary to keep a high tech society running. You can't do this with robots. It takes men with tools, skills and guts to perform these jobs. They are the salt of the earth. Leftist scum are just...well...scum.
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