Niall Ferguson: The 6 killer apps of prosperity

http://www.ted.com Over the past few centuries, Western cultures have been very good at creating general prosperity for themselves. Historian Niall Ferguson asks: Why the West, and less so the rest? He suggests half a dozen big ideas from Western culture -- call them the 6 killer apps -- that promote wealth, stability and innovation. And in this new century, he says, these apps are all shareable.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

• Category

  News & Politics

[Sarah Mead]

He is right about property rights. The problem is the west doesn't respect private property anymore, they'll take your car if you don't pay a parking ticket.

[AmericanSilverEagle]

I wish I could give two thumbs up.

[Mike C]

So you think Europeans success is through an excessive use of slavery. By that logic the Egyptians should have ruled most of the world, or Persians, Chinese etc. In fact Arabs had a thriving slave trade, some African nations even enslave as much as 1/3 of it's own population. So it makes no sense, slavery alone couldn't have been the cause of the sudden economic growth. It's like what Ferguson said about imperialism, "everyone did it empire" so it can't be the reason same applies to slavery.

[fns153]

....slavery was a system that was so brutal it could only be sustained while britains economy had nothing else to rely on. as industrialisation took hold..all the weaknesses of slavery became more apparent. yes england ended slavery alright..after spending some 300years debating whether it was right or wrong to reduce a human being down to a mere "object" a level of depravity that the arabs and other soceities who dealt in slavery never reached(FACT).

[fns153]

plz read the comment you are replying to? i never said europeans "invented" slavery.only that they carried out the "worst form" of slavery in recorded history.this was the biggest forced migration of peoples known to man.hence you have large populations of africans in the caribbean, south america, u.s.a and uk. it has been estimated that africa is the only continent to have reported zero population growth from 1500 to 1900; a period of 300years which "just happen" to coincide with slavery.

[fns153]

those few with a moral compass in england got heard after 300years. this is because britain's economy was moving away from a labour intensive full reliance on slavery.once slavery,especially the profits thereof, had helped to kickstart the industrial revolution..the new industrial economy was proving abel to prosper from new systems which required higher efficiency, not to mention intense, costly and ever increasing slave revolts. slavery was a system that was so brutal, it could only have...

[fns153]

plz read the comment you are replying to? i never said europeans "invented" slavery. only that they carried out the "worst form" of slavery in recorded history. this was the biggest forced migration of peoples known to man.hence you have large populations of africans in the caribbean, south america,u.s.a, and u.k! it has been estimated that africa is the only continent that showed zero population growth from 1500 to 1900; a period of 300years which "just happen" to coincide with slavery.

[writereducator]

tealeavesbook is right. If Adam Smith is too hard, try Thomas Sowell on the internet. England ENDED the international slave trade at great personal cost to herself. England is the first nation in the history of the world to do this. 

[tealeavesbook]

Lol, Europe did not create slavery. I suggest reading Smith's Prosperity of Nations.

[tealeavesbook]

Prosperity is for those who implement its virtues. You can't be lazy and expect to prosper.