"Misery, anger, indignation, discomfort-those conditions produce literature. Contentment-never. So there you are."

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What was the good of industrial development, what was the good of all the technological innovations, toil, and population movements if, after half a century of industrial growth, the condition of the masses was still just as miserable as before, and all lawmakers could do was prohibit factory labor by children under the age of eight?

— Thomas Piketty