Today, almost every industry on earth is being revolutionized by technological innovation. As a result, the value of labor for millions of people is being depreciated.
History repeats itself over and over again. It's impossible for us to win over machines. It's not through labor that wealth is created. Buy equity in Cash Chat Now
Back in the early 1400s, duplicating knowledge found in books was a task that took months or even years to accomplish.
As a result, owning a book was prohibitively expensive, a luxury that only the wealthiest could afford.
Historians tell us that a hand-copied book in the 14th century could cost as much as a large house. Naturally, manuscript writers were scarce, and the profession was quite well-remunerated.
While many people chased these high-paying jobs, a German man named Johannes Gutenberg had a similar goal. He also wanted to write many books, but he set out to do it differently.
Gutenberg began experimenting with his idea around 1440. About a decade later, he was able to create the first printing machine:
Even though it took Johannes Gutenberg almost a decade to accomplish building this machine, when done he was able to reproduce 200 copies of the Bible in three years, which was considered a miraculous achievement back in those days.
Gutenberg transformed the manuscript industry. The more printing presses that were replicated, the more the value of these manuscript jobs depreciated.