For most people in wealthy countries, the problems of poverty, child mortality, or illiteracy are no longer in living memory. And the vast machine that delivers our unprecedented prosperity is all but invisible. We see its products—fresh food, cheap furniture, paved roads, clean water, streaming music—but we seldom ask where they came from or how they were created, even if we are dimly aware that humanity did not always enjoy their blessings. And so it becomes all too easy to take them for granted. We forget that life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed. substack.com/home/post/…