>>The fifties and sixties (my coming of age period) were marvelous for the western countries, indeed, primarily because the rest of the world had been blown to bits in WWII.

Actually a lot of the Western countries were blown to bits as well. The Blitz on London and the destruction of Berlin is quite well known but cities like Coventry and Hamburg were truly blown to bits and numerous French and German towns and villages looked like a set from Saving Private Ryan. The US did OK: Pearl Harbor and Wake were attacked, but the only deaths on the US mainland attributed to enemy action were 6 deaths in a field in the middle of nowhere. Quite tragic: the Japanese were sending across balloons carrying a bomb as a desperate attempt to strike back at mainland US: one landed in a field and a mother and five children looking for a picnic spot seemed to have disturbed it and the bomb went off.

>>What we see now - a race to the bottom - is closer to the historical norm, I think.

Sad. Historically it took longer than a generation for self-appointed aristocrats to start believing that their sovereign majestic rights trump consideration for serfs, which is when revolutionary songs are heard in the night.