It’s true that claims that poor people now are much richer than poor or even rich people 300 years ago rely somewhat on cherrypicking which axes to measure, but the cited claims of “100-fold productivity increase” since then *also* rely on cherrypicking which axes to measure.
We haven’t gotten 100x more productive in obtaining oxygen, certainly, nor in many still-scarce resources people care about (childcare might be a particularly clear example). So people still experience poverty because civilization is still tightly bottlenecked on some resources.
I don’t think there are any resources which have gotten 100x more abundant per capita but that people still desperately scrabble to afford basic levels of. And for resources that are abundant but not hyperabundant, it’s clear how redistribution like UBI can help.
It’s true that claims that poor people now are much richer than poor or even rich people 300 years ago rely somewhat on cherrypicking which axes to measure, but the cited claims of “100-fold productivity increase” since then *also* rely on cherrypicking which axes to measure.
We haven’t gotten 100x more productive in obtaining oxygen, certainly, nor in many still-scarce resources people care about (childcare might be a particularly clear example). So people still experience poverty because civilization is still tightly bottlenecked on some resources.
I don’t think there are any resources which have gotten 100x more abundant per capita but that people still desperately scrabble to afford basic levels of. And for resources that are abundant but not hyperabundant, it’s clear how redistribution like UBI can help.