Throughout history, including before World War II, societies have generally had rising living standards and become richer.

Judge as of 2026-05-09 against long-run economic history data on living standards (e.g., GDP per capita, real wages, life expectancy). TRUE: the evidence shows that societies, viewed across history including the centuries before WWII and before the Industrial Revolution, generally had rising living standards, so that a long-run upward trend is the norm. MOSTLY TRUE: a rising trend holds across most of recorded history, with only minor exceptions such as specific crises or regions. MIXED: rising living standards hold for roughly half the span the claim covers, for example strongly in some eras and stagnant in others of similar length. MOSTLY FALSE: sustained, general growth in living standards holds mainly for the modern era (roughly post-1800), while earlier periods show long stagnation or cycles without a trend. The claim then takes a real modern pattern and states it as true of 'all history'. FALSE: the evidence shows living standards did not generally rise in most of history, including much of the modern era, or that decline was the norm.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 3 Malthusian Era Living Standards UC Davis (Gregory Clark, Farewell to Alms book chapter 3)

   “Real wages in England showed remarkably little gain in the 600 years from 1200 to 1800. The fluctuations within the six hundred years are much more dramatic than any long run upward trend.”

2. E2 3 Malthusian Era Living Standards UC Davis (Gregory Clark, Farewell to Alms book chapter 3)

   “The logic of the Malthusian economy is clear. There should be no systematic gain in living standards on average across societies between earliest man and the world of 1800 on the eve of the Industrial Revolution.”

3. E3 Dynamics and Stagnation in the Malthusian Epoch American Economic Review · 4 August 2011

   “technological superiority and higher land productivity had significant positive effects on population density but insignificant effects on the standard of living, during the time period 1-1500 CE.”

4. E4 The Economic Archaeology of Roman Economic Performance Springer · 9 February 2019

   “For many preindustrial economies, however, the story was often a more depressing one: population pressure resulted in a declining standard of living for the mass of the population.”

Clark's economic-history chapter reports that English real wages showed little gain from 1200 to 1800, with swings larger than any upward trend (E1). It also says that the logic of the Malthusian economy implies no systematic gain in average living standards from earliest humans to the eve of the Industrial Revolution (E2). A peer-reviewed AER study finds that better technology raised population density but had insignificant effects on living standards over 1–1500 CE (E3), and a Springer chapter notes that many preindustrial economies saw living standards fall for most people (E4). This fits the MOSTLY FALSE criterion: sustained rising living standards are mainly a modern pattern, and the claim applies it to "all history."