Though often taken for granted in the contemporary Western world, the standard of living that we enjoy did not always exist. In fact, it didn’t exist a century ago. In an article for Forbes, Brian Brenberg, Professor of Business and Economics at The King’s College, describes how heartbreak in one of America’s favorite TV shows makes a powerful case for economic freedom.
Season 4 of Downton Abbey opened with the Crawley family continuing to mourn the loss of Sybil and Matthew. For fans of the show, what makes their deaths so difficult is that, today, they are preventable.
In places like England and the U.S., people enjoy standards of health, safety and comfort that even the nobility just a hundred years ago couldn’t fathom. That’s because these societies have benefitted from relatively high levels of economic freedom, which fosters the experimentation and innovation that produces life-enhancing products and services.
