https://archive.ph/mdLpi

Far from reducing extreme poverty, the expansion of capitalism from the 16th century onward was associated with a dramatic deterioration in human welfare. This is according to a study carried out by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) in collaboration with Macquarie University, Australia, which shows that this new economic system saw a decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human stature, and a marked upturn in premature mortality.

...

"This is because capitalism is an undemocratic system where production is organized around elite accumulation rather than human needs," explains Sullivan. "To maximize profitability, capital often seeks to cheapen labor through processes of enclosure, dispossession, and exploitation."

Finally, the authors find that recovery from this prolonged period of immiseration occurred only recently: progress in human welfare began in the late 19th century in Northwest Europe and the mid-20th century in the global South. Sullivan and Hickel note that this coincides with the rise of the labor movement, socialist political parties, and de-colonization. "These movements redistributed incomes, established public provisioning systems, and attempted to organize production around meeting human needs," Jason Hickel says. "Progress appears to come from progressive social movements."

  • adultswim_antifa [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    So basically I'm a serf. It's fucking 1320 motherfucker and I live in fucking Alsace. My parents and grandparents had modestly improved living standards because of the lingering effects of the New Deal but that fades every year.

  • TankBombadil [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I'm not trying to disparage this study, but I do wonder where they got the info of quality of life from people in imperial periphery before colonialism.

    • Nagarjuna [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      We can use ethnographic records to estimate hours worked. We can use N-15 content in bones to estimate protein intake. We can use teeth to estimate lifespan. Archaeologists are actually quit good at this stuff

    • TheoryUnderstander [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I don't have time to read the article right now but it looks like this is using the Hickel study, which iirc used data from pre-colonial India.

      Here's a tweet thread by the guy that explains their methodology pretty well.

      sorry if this isn't actually relevant lol

  • communism_liker_69 [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    its very funny to me that this is posted in physorg which I think is just a science publication. Their top stories today are about weather and climate, particle physics, medicine, etc.

    physorg publishers acknowledging the immortal science? jk - unless ;)