Consider these numbers. The final season of Game of Thrones cost about $100 million to film. In 1300, the entire medieval English real GDP was only 40 million English pounds.

Game of Thrones doesn't hide the desperate poverty of common people living in a fantasy version of medieval times. We see rulers indifferent to the filth, disease, and starvation endured by the average individual. Citizens are treated as objects put on earth to better the lives of their rulers.

Game of Thrones could be the greatest advertisement ever written for capitalism. For the curious, an obvious question is, How did we progress from the poverty of Westeros to modern society?

Redistribution of Wealth

Game of Thrones poses a few answers to that question. Thrones is mostly about conquest and the redistribution of wealth, not the creation of wealth. Sadly, that is what modern politics has become. Politicians battle over how to legally steal from one group to benefit government and those they favor.