"Most people who lived in the year 1800 were scarcely richer than people who lived in the year 100,000 B.C." From the perspective of a well-paid NYT journalist

"Most people who lived in the year 1800 were scarcely richer than people who lived in the year 100,000 B.C." From the perspective of a well-paid NYT journalist, maybe. But I doubt the average 18th century farmer would have traded his iron tools, draft animals and brick-built house for the flint axes and caves of his ancestors.