1971: The Year Humanity Was Enslaved

What happened in 1971? That’s a question we don’t often ask ourselves—and I’m no exception. In 1971, we landed on the Moon for the third time, and Coco Chanel passed away. In 1971, the Bretton Woods system came to an end, and Bangladesh gained its independence. In 1971, the Poppys sang at the top of their lungs that “no, no, nothing has changed.” They were right. It was after 1971 that everything changed, and when I say everything, believe me, I’m not exaggerating. This is the extraordinary discovery made by two Americans, two data and economics enthusiasts who one day started collecting charts. What they found was surprising—so surprising that we had to tell you about it here. Nobody seems to have noticed, but 1971 is a peculiar year in economic history, a kind of singularity after which the data changes pace and the curves change direction. All of them, from economic growth and inequality to the number of lawyers in the world, or the number of people who are overweight. The two collectors I’m about to introduce you to created an unusual website, which we’re going to explore together. They present their work there and suggest several explanations for the phenomenon, but so far, none seems entirely satisfactory. So the website has another purpose: to let everyone examine the data and come up with their own theory. And that’s what we’re going to try to do now.