Advertisers often create an idealized image of the past, leading people to misinterpret historical realities. In actuality, living conditions in earlier decades were often worse than many assume, with urban pollution severe enough to cause rivers to catch fire, housing sizes significantly smaller for middle-class families, and technology limited to small, black-and-white televisions. This comparison reveals that many working-class individuals today, including first-generation immigrants, experience better living standards than those in the presumed prosperous 1950s. The romanticization of past eras is misleading, as periods like the middle ages are similarly misconstrued as times of economic bliss, obscuring the true struggles of those who lived then.
The universe, points out economist Noah Smith, is always trying to kill us, whether through asteroids hurtling through space or our every-few-hours hunger pains. Why, then, should we expect anything but a gravitational pull toward poverty? Listen as Smith explains to EconTalk's Russ Roberts why he believes that poverty will always be our "elemental foe," and how what he calls "industrial modernity" is key to keeping poverty at bay. They also discuss Smith's impatience with the "degrowth movement," which he thinks jeopardizes our gains in the fight against the elemental foe.