This is simply absurd. Does this professor look around, and see high-speed wireless internet, computers in our pockets, regular globe-spanning airline flights,

This is simply absurd. Does this professor look around, and see high-speed wireless internet, computers in our pockets, regular globe-spanning airline flights, fast, safe vehicles, high-definition color televisions, washing machines, dishwashers, air conditioning... and honestly believe that people in 1919 could have had that level of consumption, if they'd simply wanted it badly enough?