I Deserve the Nobel Prize

Joel Mokyr just won the Nobel Prize in economics partly for advancing a view that I regard as self-evident:

I have been arguing for this idea since a paper I wrote in my first year of graduate school, in 1986, and I found plenty of people to cite back then. I read a bunch of summaries of Mokyr's work yesterday and nothing about it struck me as in any way new or interesting. One of his other big points is the key role of elites like scientists, engineers and company founders in driving social and economic change; is that news?

If you want the best book arguing for the view that Enlightenment science and philosophy launched the industrial revolution you should read Jenny Uglow's The Lunar Men.

But, hey, maybe giving the prize to Mokyr & company may convince somebody to come around to my point of view.