One of the most enduring, reality-resistant, mythologies of our world has been that of the Great Convergence: the idea that developing countries would converge in living standard with the Western middle class. It had its role during the Cold War, as an alternative to Soviet-promised proletarian earthly paradises, but it really took off during the 1990s’ Third Wave of Globalization. Amid a flurry of television shows to be promoted and books to be sold, the world would be flat, the rest would rise and a global middle class would usher in the faux-Kantian triangle of perpetual consumer peace.

Most of this lacked any empirical basis but, briefly, it was thought that hype could lead the way to reality.

This was in the convergence between the so-called Global South and the so-called Global North. The geographical distinction tends to lend itself to hyperbole, but it does reflect an important historical distinction. North European and East Asian countries, which previously formed successful states, provided vastly better standards of living than countries in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and South America.