A reward for filth

The economist Gregory Clark gives an interesting talk proposing a particular idea about the relationship between population, technology, mortality and income (or wages).





The model has some counter-intuitive outcomes, but might help to explain a few things which have puzzled me for a long time, such as why within modern society so much vitriol is directed towards teenage mothers, whereas only a few generations earlier teenage motherhood was normal. This model would predict that teenage mothers shift the birth graph upwards and therefore the equilibrium point on the population/income graph shifts backwards, reducing living standards.

The model also challenges my preconceptions, in that improvements in technology might not always result in improvements in living standards (actually the reverse, if mortality curves remain unaffected). Typically though changes in technology may also have implications for mortality, so the relationship is a complicated one.