neocombo

I was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1958, to a very typical middle-class American family and that fact makes me extraordinarily lucky. If I'd been born much earlier than I actually was such as during the late 19th century, my life would have been considerably different. For one thing I would not have had as much life to live. Today in an advanced economy like the United States a typical person can expect to live about 80 years. A hundred years ago life expectancy was only about 50 years. In fact there's a good chance that I might not have made it into adulthood at all because the death rates in infants and young children were very high. If I did manage to survive my birth and childhood I would not have gotten much education. The typical American born in the late 19th century went to school for only about seven years compared to about fourteen years today. And throughout my life I would have experienced a much lower standard of living. A century ago the average American's income adjusted for inflation was less than a fifth of what it is today. What was normal then would now be considered poverty. Now consider a second scenario. What if I'd been born recently but not in an advanced economy like the United States? Suppose instead that I was born to a typical family living