… is from pages 173-174 of Joel Mokyr’s 1990 book, The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress:
Through the ages, the various activities that conveyed prestige have included, beside the creation of wealth (economic activity), the military, the arts, worship, sports, administration, learning, and teaching. Different societies have ranked these various activities differently. It seems plausible that the higher labor, production, and the accumulation of wealth are in this ranking, the more susceptible a society is to technological progress.
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