What disasters, particularly relatively modern ones?

This reads as massive cope because China has lifted ~800M people out of extreme poverty [1][2] and the transformation of the ordinary lives of Chinese people is almost unbelievable. More cope here is "yeah but that's Tier 1 cities". But look at rural life in small villages. Even 20 years ago people were still drawing water from wells and didn't have indoor plumbing.

Now? High speed internet on smartphones, modern houses, indoor plumbing, reliable electricity, electric vehicles, etc.

What we have in the West is a captured system of parasitic wealth transfer from the young and poor to the old and rich where society and infrastructure is crumbling. My prediction is that the 21st century is going to show the central planning (in China) is going to produce far better outcomes for the vast majority of people.

[1]: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/04/01/l...

[2]: https://amro-asia.org/an-exemplary-journey-in-eradicating-po...