Humans were generally poor until the industrial revolution unleashed a flurry of innovative activity. Many might assume that the intellec-tual and entrepreneurial breakthroughs were driven by highly educated elites who graduated from leading universities. In fact, it is well documented that high-skilled blue-collar and technical workers, in machinist and production occupations and typically with no post-secondary training, made the largest direct contributions to innovation during the industrial revolution, as measured by patenting activity and other indicators. The predominance of blue-collar workers in technological innovation continued well into the second half of the twentieth century.
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