200 years is an odd figure. If you replace it with 80 years it becomes reasonable enough. The post-war prosperity has been a long historical anomaly. A century

200 years is an odd figure. If you replace it with 80 years it becomes reasonable enough. The post-war prosperity has been a long historical anomaly. A century of prosperity is not historically unprecedented, just relatively rare, and easy to take for granted. What we're facing now is more like a return to what the world has looked for the most of its history.