This is the problem with these writers is that they lack precision in their arguments and conflate partial facts with delusions to come to a desired outcome.

From the article:

“Faced with a trade deficit with China, the British Empire flooded their country with cheap opium they had shipped over from India. A luxury drug became an addiction, and the British traded their opium for porcelain, tea, and silk.”

Britain started a series of wars on China to accept the drug Opium which was banned in China.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars

Modern Germany and the technological advancements was not enslaved, weakened or slowed down by the universal social security and healthcare system enacted by Bismarck in 1883:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck#Social_legis...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Germany

Bullshit. The Ptolemies went to pot in Alexandria, but even so Cleopatra went down fighting. The (down-home) Macedonians had a lot of money, but they went down fighting. The Gauls lost a series of pitched battles before they were conquered, as did the Britons.

Tacitus was a remarkable writer, but he had an axe to grind. The degeneration through luxury he had in mind was back in Rome.

The Big Think? Here I want to quote G.K. Chesterton's friend, who heard what someone prefaced with a "A thought:", and said, "Good God, man, you call that a thought?"

well.. I gotta say, being enslaved by good health care wouldn't be the worst problem to have