I'm not saying we haven't progressed. what I mean to say is that, at the moment, we could have an _even more_ efficient economy if we had more competition and l

I'm not saying we haven't progressed. what I mean to say is that, at the moment, we could have an _even more_ efficient economy if we had more competition and less rent seeking. Less propping up of 'zombie companies' and more 'creative destruction' > isn't designed You're right. A more nuanced way to say this is 'emerged' from power structures and incentives. Economics is the study of a world where all political problems have been solved. e.g. a convoluted and overburdening tax system ... not properly managing negative externalities ... money in politics > the bottom 20% are objectively much better off in terms of food and health than Mill's time. I agree but 'what got us here, wont get us there' especially if we wind up in a 'distributed tech neo-feudal system' where 'lords' own so much of the means of production (was land now IP stocks etc) they cannot be outcompeted / supplanted without violence. > percentage lifted out of sickness and poverty. China? > I somehow doubt you'd accept him as an authority on anything you didn't like the sound of. Don't we all have our biases