The standard of living remained relatively low and flat until the middle of the 20th century, when there was an unprecedented acceleration of economic well-being in Western Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Over the last 70 years, there has been a four or five-fold improvement in standard of living. This transformation cannot be explained by plunder, as there was no one to take from. Instead, it is attributed to industrialization, modern scientific discoveries, and the accumulation of tacit knowledge about building industrial things, which allowed for the extraction and processing of natural resources into new forms of products. Historical trajectories of countries primarily focused on plundering for wealth are observed to differ from those primarily focused on industrial development.