The topic below was originally posted in my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal as well as the Independent Bloggers Alliance, The Peace Tree and Worldwide Sawdust.

Our current world of globalization, technological advancement and the widening schism between rich and poor stems from the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the Industrial Revolution is arguably the most important historical watershed in human history. So why did it happen in eighteenth-century England? Furthermore, how come the unprecedented economic growth it produced only served to make parts of the world even poorer?

Adam Smith published the Inquiry Into the Nature and Cases of the Wealth of Nations in 1776 and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels released The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Both publications advocated for economic models, capitalism and socialism respectively, that promised to advance the human condition. Although both paradigms made important contributions during the industrialization era, neither capitalism nor socialism appears equipped to guide humanity in a post-industrial information age economy.