ABSTRACT
The economic progress that capitalism has produced since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution has been so astounding that it surely would have appeared impossible to even the most farsighted people prior to its occurrence. Imagine explaining to someone in 1700 that in a few hundred years people of average means would be able to fly from one continent to another in a few hours. Imagine explaining to that person that you could talk to someone anywhere in the world through a small hand-held device people could carry with them wherever they went. While the technological marvels by themselves would be incredible, the widespread increases in the average standard of living would be at least as remarkable. Advances in healthcare mean that it is no longer rare for people to live into old age. Advances in agricultural productivity mean that for the first time in history poor people (in capitalist economies) are not threatened with starvation. Average people in the twenty-first century have luxuries well beyond what even the most privileged had a few hundred years ago. What prince in 1700 would not have gladly given up his horse-drawn “coach and six” 1 for an air-conditioned automobile with a sound system that would play his favorite music on command and that, seated in a luxurious seat, he could command to travel at high speed using only small body movements? That economic progress is remarkable, and yet we take it for granted because it has been a part of everyone’s life who is alive today, for their entire lives.
