Meh, Up until the 17th and early 18th Century most of global wealth was located in China and India. Its what made them prime target for the militarily strong E

Meh, Up until the 17th and early 18th Century most of global wealth was located in China and India. Its what made them prime target for the militarily strong Europeans. I have been to Europe, Asia and the Middle East and people are almost the same. So how can I explain the widely different living standards ? The only answer that ever made sense to me was colonization. You can see the equalization happening with Britain and US having third world style politics, corruption, etc due to having to learn to live in world without their hegemony. As for democracy, do you think China could have survived democracy ? It would have ended up like Iran. Democracy only works if the country has strong institutions which China doesn't have, they still send their best and brightest to US universities.