The truly depressing implications of this is that while the “Royal Road” was open and wide, one needed only minimal good governance to get and stay on it, (cf China) To make the best of a more difficult path will require better governance, stricter adherence to the rule of law, more careful cost-benefit analysis of public investments, taxation with smaller dead-weight losses, transfers using non-leaky buckets, well-chosen Pigou taxes and subsidies [COP 28, take note]. In a word, “neoliberalism.” :)