Scientists now think that King Tut may have died of malaria. As the fellow who sent me the link dryly noted, King Tut did not have good comprehensive health insurance.
All kidding aside, this is a good excuse to meditate on just
how rich we are. King Tut was probably the wealthiest man in the world
during his time. He died of something that wouldn’t kill the most
abjectly immiserated welfare mother in the United States today, because
of a combination of public health efforts, and cheap antimalarial drugs.
You
always need to factor in things like this when you talk about changes
in living standards over time. All the positive changes in society
mean that the absolute difference between the income of Bill Gates and
the man who valets his car is larger than it has ever been in history.
But the actual difference in comfort between the two of them is
probably much smaller than the difference between JP Morgan and his
stableboy. And both Gates and the valet are almost immeasurably better
off than their predecessors.
