However if you look at empirical evidence aka history, the markets helped human societies adapt and flourish in a wide variety of conditions, most of which were characterized by scarcity of some resources.
So? The two broad defaults for responding to scarcity are trade and violence, history has plenty of examples of both, and polities that were successful at either will be more thoroughly documented in history due to survivor bias.
Nevertheless, every complex civilization previous to ours eventually failed and collapsed. If markets explained their success, do market failures explain their demise? What reason do you have to be so confident that ours has nothing to worry about?
Nevertheless, every complex civilization previous to ours eventually failed and collapsed. If markets explained their success, do market failures explain their demise?
What do you mean with civilisation in that sentence? Are you refering to Fermi or are you taking about human civilisations?
Nevertheless, every complex civilization previous to ours eventually failed and collapsed.
Humanity is still here and looks pretty complex to me :-) Individual civilizations come and go, sure, but that’s not the question we’re discussing. If e.g. the Western civilization collapses, there will be others ready and willing to take its place.
So? The two broad defaults for responding to scarcity are trade and violence, history has plenty of examples of both, and polities that were successful at either will be more thoroughly documented in history due to survivor bias.
Nevertheless, every complex civilization previous to ours eventually failed and collapsed. If markets explained their success, do market failures explain their demise? What reason do you have to be so confident that ours has nothing to worry about?
Well, the economy of the Roman Empire collapsed when Diocletian undermined the markets by imposing price controls.
What do you mean with civilisation in that sentence? Are you refering to Fermi or are you taking about human civilisations?
In this context, individual human civilizations.
Humanity is still here and looks pretty complex to me :-) Individual civilizations come and go, sure, but that’s not the question we’re discussing. If e.g. the Western civilization collapses, there will be others ready and willing to take its place.
Actually, for the first time in history, we might have achieved a global civilization, as well as a global single point of failure.