Since we human beings are actually able to create wealth that didn't exist before, has the aggregate wealth of the nations of the world really grown over the last couple centuries? Yes it has.
For an absolutely stunning visual of how wealth has grown since about 1800, go to "Gapminder, for a fact-based worldview". Click on the button "Load Gapminder World" and you'll see a chart of colored circles, each representing a nation with its color indicating which part of the world it's in. Click on the play button.
The circles move to the right indicating a rise in wealth, while also rising toward the top to indicate the rise in life expectancy. Makes sense that one benefit of rising wealth would be an ability to increase health and longevity.
Pick a country, keep your eye on it as you play the chart again, and watch how its well-being changed over the years. For example: China stayed at the low end of income per person until around 1990. It begs the question, what happened around 1990 in China?
What do you find in this chart?
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