very interesting comparisons and theories of civilizational cycles

Why is Mexico way poorer than the US? Why did Italy go from consistently wealthy and a big deal to falling far behind Britain/Germany?

His hypothesis: because the Spanish empire spread "the holy Trinity of tyranny: family, church, and nobility", and those are very unhelpful

(Reinforces previous idea that the rich west is rich bc of individualism, weaker family/religious ties, etc)

Fwiw those three are very important and stabilizing, but also a very helpful for authorities trying to keep a population down

Rome was maybe 80% literate??? Compared to 1-2% of Europe during the Middle ages

Yikes

Classical societies were very different than we imagine them

• Athens had a large slave class, very clan-organized, religious fundamentalists
• At least in sparta women could own property in their own name sometimes

The US is several different civilizations, with different religions, etc. not even just rural vs urban, northeast vs CA vs Texas, for example