Completely irrelevant, as is the argument that we're richer now than we were in the middle ages. We're richer now because we have accumulated more knowledge, which in turn has made us better at exploiting resources. You can't compare a time when we were fewer(like say the middle ages) and the present. You've got to ask; what would the situation be if we were 5 billion humans instead of 6 billion now?
And the answer to that, is that we would've been richer with 5 billion. The amount of resources would've been the same, and we would be able to extract just as much resources. Nothing would've changed except for the number of people to split the wealth on, and, unless you failed maths, should tell you that we would've been richer with 5 billion.
Bookmarks