28 



TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMY 



tilism was assailed because it interfered with free 

 trade and free competition and hence slowed the 

 accumulation of the nation's wealth; and fre- 

 quently any governmental planning is deplored 

 because our high standard of living is claimed to 

 be the result of the rugged individualism of free 

 competition and the free functioning of the laws 

 of supply and demand. 



In the light of that theory — that it is the free- 

 competitive economic system that makes for the 

 production of wealth and the high standard of 

 living — there may occur to the reader a simple 

 question. V\'hy is it that this region of Guatemala, 

 which has so close an approach to the ideally free 

 competitive economy — where rugged individualism 

 is not bothered by governmental red tape or by 

 labor unions or trust.s — why is it, then, that the 

 region is so poor and the standard of living so 

 abysmally low? Here, where there should be 

 wealth, the day-labor rate of pay is 10 to 15 cents 

 a day. The people, entering the second third of 

 the twentieth centiu-y, live without medical aid 

 or drugs, in dii't-floored huts with hardly any 

 fm-niture, the light only of the fire that smokes 

 up the room, or of a pitch-pine torch or a little 

 tin kerosene lamp; the mortality rate is high; the 

 diet is meager and most people cannot afford 

 more than a half-pound of meat a week. The 

 chickens or oranges that thej'^ grow they eat only 

 on special occasions because they are worth more 

 on the market than their growers can afford to 

 consume. Schools are almost nonexistent; the 

 children cannot be spared from work in the fields. 

 The freight of the country is carried up and do\\ai 

 the steep mountain in loads on the backs of the 

 Indian men or on the heads of the women. Life 

 is mostly hard work, and one is apt to get sick if 

 he worries or complains about it. And if he 

 does get sick, and is kept from work for a few 

 weeks and has to hire a medicine man — there go 

 his life savings, and his land and his means of 

 nuiking a decent living. For one lives here with 

 a precariously bare margin of safety, and the 

 difference between wealth and poverty is a slim 

 little piece of bad luck. 



I do not know if the level of living among the 



emphasis is on the skills of men that it improves rather than in accumu- 

 lation or technical icnowledge, although when he argues that water carriage 

 made possible large scale, hence more effective, division of labor, hence (?) 

 improved technology, an inference may be drawn that wealth comes from 

 both improved division of labor and technology. In later chapters. Smith 

 makes very clear his realization that technological improvements (e. g. 

 in weaving, p. 246) bring about reduced prices and abimdance. 



Indians of Guatemala is one of the lowest in the 

 world; it is difficidt to compare with such places 

 as China and India. But it is surely low enough 

 to give meaning to the question: "WTiy does not 

 the fact that everybody works hard for himself 

 alone, and seeks to ma.ximize his own rewards, 

 have the effect of creating wealth for all? 



I suppose the answer is pretty obvious. The 

 main reason is that the technology of the region, 

 as described above, is inferior. It may be argued 

 that the land is poor, that natural resources are 

 lacking. This may be true: if there are important 

 mineral deposits, they are not known; the land is 

 perhaps not too rich. But clearly the use of 

 natural resources is relative to the technology. 

 The England of King Arthur's time had more 

 coal in the ground than it has today. England's 

 teclmological development is certainly as much 

 cause as it is consequence of its natural resources. 

 There may not be coal in this region of Guatemala, 

 but there are streams of running water, and they 

 could be harnessed for use. In these days when 

 we seem on the verge of getting energy from atoms 

 perhaps of some common materials, it seems futile 

 to speak of natural resources unqualified by con- 

 siderations of technical knowledge. 



No — what seems to be lacking in Guatemala is 

 the beginning of the accumulation of technical 

 knowledge that eventually results in improvement 

 in the material standards of life. This technical 

 Icnowledge need not be indigenous; it could be 

 diffused from without. Nor may it require "in- 

 dustrialization" — the area might well remain 

 largely agricultural and still take advantage of 

 better technology. How this might happen is 

 illustrated by the case of motor vehicles. Al- 

 though the Indians failed to adopt many items of 

 sixteenth-century European technology, I have 

 mentioned that contemporary Indians are taking 

 to the use of motor-vehicle bus or truck lines that 

 are owned and operated by Ladinos. A continua- 

 tion of this trend alone (even if nothing else 

 changes) will eventually contribute to raising the 

 level of living in the region. I do not know how 

 many man-hours of time are spent in carrying 

 produce to market on foot, but it must run into 

 the millions in the whole region. At least half 

 of this time will be saved when it becomes common 

 practice to ride in busses and trucks, and when 

 these are available between all points. In con- 

 sequence, either there will be more leisure — and 



