More like three. Went from $1500 to $1.50. At a minimum wage job in the US, you can buy multiple shirts per hour worked. It would literally blow the mind of ancient people (maybe even moreso than something like a Computer), as it's something they have and work with - but the price is so different.
The idea that someone on a laborers salary could afford the material standard of people in much of the world today would be astonishing. My own grandmother grew up wearing clothes made from repurposed flour sacks, and that was only 90 years ago. The last two centuries of human progress are staggering to think about.
There's a book called Why the West Rules--For now that basically explores the social development of the Western and Eastern cores since the dawn of civilization. One of the striking things in the book is that the author charts social development as measured by a formula with lots of variables. The kicker is that if you zoom out to look at the whole history, at that scale, the chart is basically flat-lined near zero until a couple hundred years ago.
Yes, I'm handwaving that even if you very conservatively estimate factoring back in for the externalized costs etc., you still are a couple of orders at least for cheapest garments.
i.e. the GP has a valid point but it doesn't undermine OP article at all. I expanded a little.
