Poverty

From Economic theories @ Poverty on Wikipedia:

Most economic historians believe that throughout most of human history, extreme poverty was the norm for roughly 90% of the population, and only with the emergence of industrialization in the 19th century were the masses of people lifted out of it.:

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Quotation: "But in some ways, Hickel's response reflects the crux of the dispute between him and Roser. Roser — like most economic historians — does not view poverty as created but as the original state of humankind from its inception until the Industrial Revolution."

This narrative is advanced by, among others, Martin Ravallion, Nicholas Kristof, and Steven Pinker.