Christmas is the season of joy, gatherings, and gift-giving. Streets sparkle with festive lights, and the spirit of celebration fills the air. Yet amid the cheer, there are always a few Grinches and Scrooges in every family — those who grumble about the neighbors or lament about how things were “better” in the past. In truth, we are living better today than even Louis XIV, the infamous Sun King of the French Empire.
To illustrate how far we’ve come, consider the life of royalty in history. For most of history, royalty represented the pinnacle of wealth and privilege. They owned land, managed affairs, and arranged the occasional wedding to ensure dynastic legacies. All this power and yet, they lived in poverty by today’s day and age. King Louis XIV, suffered from an array of diseases that no amount of gold spent could help him. Additionally, Louis XIV spent 3.5 million livres in construction alone to maintain grass lawns and the functioning fountains with his Marly Machine.
Fast forward to today, and the contrast with the ‘Sun King’ could not be more striking. Modern advancements have dramatically transformed our world. The global GDP per capita, the average out per person, since the 1800s has exponentially grown. Our living standards have improved not threefold, not tenfold, but at an unimaginable rate. Our purchasing power has risen and the quality of goods have followed this trend.
This transformation is vividly illustrated in the evolution of transportation, beginning in 1886 when Karl Benz revolutionized mobility with the first gasoline-powered automobile. It was the first gasoline automobile available to the public, well, only those wealthy enough to afford the “horseless” vehicle. The first car was priced at $1,000 — roughly $130,000 in today’s dollars. The first automobile equipped with three wheels, no doors, one bench and with a firm handle had a limited focus of use, ”mainly for the operation of light carts and small boats.” In 1908, Henry Ford revolutionized transportation with the Model T, famously stating, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black.” The Model T brought mobility to the masses, with doors, four wheels, a windshield and a retractable roof, costing consumers, in their time, between $260 and $850. In 22 years, the common man had access to a mode of transportation his grandparents could not even imagine, nor dare dream of. Roughly 100 years after the Model T, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics in 2009 noted for a family of four that could drive, there were four vehicles. A century of progress sped society from insufficient mobility to an overabundance!
The remarkable leap from horse-drawn carriages to mass-produced automobiles highlights a broader phenomenon called “The Great Enrichment.” Economist Deirdre McCloskey coined ”The Great Enrichment” as a period of unprecedented economic growth and innovation that began around the Industrial Revolution. She notes that this period of prosperity was not about capital accumulation, but rather, “human creativity liberated by liberalism.” In other words, people free to innovate and build creatively drove our society to new frontiers. It was not the amount of horse drawn carriages that mattered, but the first three-wheeled vehicle that sputtered at 16 km/h, or 10 mph.
Karl Benz introduced a passenger vehicle that at the turn of the century, Henry Ford adapted and sold to the average Joe. Thus, vehicles replaced horse-drawn carriages. The wheel wasn’t reinvented; rather, it found a new axis to spin upon. These innovations didn’t just improve efficiency; they fundamentally changed how people lived.
As we enjoy the holiday season, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the “Great Enrichment” that surrounds us. Every gift under the tree, every gadget in our hands, and every light that twinkles in our streets is a testament to human ingenuity. What was once unimaginable is now ordinary. The medieval king’s feast, impressive as it seemed, pales in comparison to what modern families have today. Thanks to innovation, we truly live better than kings.
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