IN 1957, British prime minister Harold Macmillan famously told the nation that it had "never had it so good". His late-1970s successor James Callaghan, beset by economic woes, did not repeat the claim, but rather surprisingly it seems he had more right to do so.
In terms of global prosperity, 1978 was as good as it gets. The past 35 years have seen a long, slow decline – at least if you use a measure of prosperity called the Genuine Progress Indicator, which includes environmental and social prosperity as well as financial wealth (see "The wonder year: Why 1978 was the best year ever"). GDP, the standard measure of national prosperity, ignores these.
Where did it all go wrong? It is surely not a coincidence that 1979 marked the end of the post-war economic consensus and the rise of neoliberalism, with its rallying cry "greed is good". Globalisation, deregulation and unfettered movement of capital have made a lot of people rich, but have come at a terrible cost: environmental destruction and widening inequality.
Money matters, of course. But until we stop treating it as if it is the only worthwhile measure of prosperity, we will never have it so good again.
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