Industrial capitalism has existed for only 0.1 percent of humanity’s history.

Evidence

If, instead, we decide to take the historical perspective seriously, if we think that no future scenario is inevitable, two facts become much clearer. First, we are talking about an extremely young system. Homo sapiens have been organizing the production of our material conditions for about two hundred thousand years, but industrial capitalism has existed for less than three hundred years. This means that we have lived under capitalism for around 0.1 percent of our history. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 61

Categorization

• CANDY: The 0.1 percent figure is a sharp conversation-opener — people assume capitalism is far older than it is.
• XREF: Connects to the ‘end of history’ Fukuyama critique Mattei flags right before in paragraph 60 — the historical contingency claim is the direct rebuttal. — connects to: Humans have lived under capitalism for only about 0.1 percent of history. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 61