https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

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Techno-optimism is the belief that rapid technological progress is the main driver of human prosperity and should be pursued as a moral imperative. It argues that:

Growth = Good: Innovation creates abundance, longer lives, and better living standards.

Barriers = Bad: Regulation, caution, and pessimism slow down progress and should be resisted.

Technology as Solution: Challenges like poverty, disease, and climate change are best solved by accelerating science and technology rather than restricting them.

In short: Techno-optimism sees faster innovation as the surest path to human flourishing — and treats resistance to technological progress as harmful.
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Here’s a structured overview of the major schools of economic thought, mapped across time, followed by an estimate of which views dominate public and policy thinking today.

📜 Timeline of Major Economic Schools
 1.⁠ ⁠Mercantilism (1500s–1700s)

Core idea: National wealth measured by gold/silver; exports > imports; heavy state control.

Influence: Guided colonial empires, trade monopolies, and tariffs.

 2.⁠ ⁠Classical Economics (1776–1870)

Key figures: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill.

Core idea: Free markets, division of labour, “invisible hand”; emphasis on production and growth.

Impact: Industrial Revolution policy, laissez-faire capitalism.

 3.⁠ ⁠Marxism & Socialist Economics (mid-1800s–present)

Key figure: Karl Marx.

Core idea: Critique of capitalism, labour theory of value, class struggle, state ownership.

Impact: Inspired communist revolutions, socialist policies, labour movements.

 4.⁠ ⁠Marginalism & Neoclassical Economics (1870s–present)

Key figures: Jevons, Walras, Marshall.

Core idea: Value determined by marginal utility; equilibrium analysis; rational individuals.

Impact: Foundation of modern mainstream economics, microeconomics.

 5.⁠ ⁠Keynesian Economics (1930s–present)

Key figure: John Maynard Keynes.

Core idea: Markets can fail (esp. in depressions); governments should manage demand using fiscal & monetary policy.

Impact: Guided post–WWII Western economies, welfare state expansion.

 6.⁠ ⁠Monetarism & Chicago School (1950s–1980s)

Key figure: Milton Friedman.

Core idea: Control money supply to manage inflation; limit government intervention.

Impact: Reaganomics, Thatcherism, central bank independence.

 7.⁠ ⁠Austrian School (late 1800s–present, revived 1970s)

Key figures: Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek.

Core idea: Importance of entrepreneurship, spontaneous order, critique of central planning.

Impact: Free-market think tanks, libertarian movements.

 8.⁠ ⁠Development Economics (1940s–present)

Core idea: Structural transformation, role of institutions, tackling poverty in Global South.

Impact: World Bank, UN development policy, debates on aid.

 9.⁠ ⁠New Keynesian & New Classical Synthesis (1980s–present)

Core idea: Rational expectations (New Classical) + sticky wages/prices (New Keynesian).

Impact: Dominant academic framework; forms the basis of central bank models today.

10.⁠ ⁠Modern Schools (1990s–present)

Behavioural Economics: Psychology meets economics (Kahneman, Thaler).

Post-Keynesian / MMT (Modern Monetary Theory): Governments with sovereign currencies can run large deficits to ensure employment.

Ecological Economics: Sustainability, climate change, “beyond GDP”.

Techno-Optimist / Data-driven Economics: Big data, market design, platform economies.

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