Joe Studwell

It's not the case that there's a direct correlation that the more people you get, the better it is for forever and forever.

It's about having a minimum...

a minimum density of people that means that you can afford the infrastructure, that you have the markets, that you've got the division of labour that's required to do complex things efficiently.

Yeah, it's not a perfect science.

And I'm just making historical analogies with what the case was in Asia.

But I'm saying that clearly, you know, 9, 10 was way too low.

You know, 50, 60 worked for Asia.

But having been 50, 60 in Asia, it then tripled over the next 70 years.

In East Asia, it's now around 150.

But Africa will go to 150 on its current population trajectory.

Okay.

I mean, there's going to be 4 billion people at the end of the century in Africa and there'll be 4 billion people in Asia.

And there will be only 2 billion people in the rest of the world if the UN's projections are to be believed.

Yeah, I think that what African governments managed to do post-1960 in education is really underreported and was very important.

So, I mean, again, it was this very low population density that meant the colonial governments couldn't raise tax either.

So their response to not being able to raise any significant tax was to not run schools.

And there were no schools bar missionary schools in Africa until the 1950s.

I mean, one or two tiny exceptions.

So obviously, South Africa was an exception.

Mauritius was an exception.