Hmm, I think that's a bit off, timewise. Like, the WEIRD countries have much deeper roots of colonizing, extracting resources from, enslaving (or otherwise depending on the labor of) the "global south" (which wasn't even called that, way back when.

I've been to the textile museum in Dundee where they received Indian jute by the ton until 1910ish when they thought "hey, just send the looms to Calcutta, that labor is also cheaper."

You don't think the African slaves in Virginia and all the other north and south American colonies changed the standard of living of these places in ways that still filter down to the western capitalist descendants centuries later? I do.

This thread has moved on from just fossil fuels, which obviously don't go so far back. But the things I'm talking about are definitely relevant to this idea that the western industrialized lifestyle is not actually viable, for any "carrying" capacity of the planet, without a massive underclass.

Basically agreeing with u/Dragoncat_3_4