The simple fact of the matter is that since the dawn of the Enlightenment, the enshrinement of individual rights, and the advent of protection for private property—the roots of capitalism—global GDP has increased exponentially, in shocking fashion. In the year 1 BCE, global GDP amounted to $183 billion; in 1000, global GDP amounted to approximately $210 billion; in 1500, it was still just $431 billion; in 1700, $643 billion; as of 2013, $101 trillion. That is a 15 percent increase in the first millennium; a 105 percent increase from 1000 to 1500; a 49 percent increase between 1500 and 1700;
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