No doubt. I guess it is a good thing to continually increase our standards, but I fully agree that it matters a lot if the lives of our poor have materially improved from one generation to the next. I suppose the questions ought to be: 1) Is there such a thing as an optimal state of wealth distribution? 2) What do we consider to be an optimal state of wealth distribution?, and 3) Can this be engineered at all? and 4) If so, should it be and to what degree? I'm not as pessimistic as you might think. In most respects, I see us moving forward, not only as a nation, but globally. But of course, humanity has been sidetracked for centuries before. It's worth questioning the fundamentals. Where do you think the greatest risk to progress currently lies? For me, I would guess either resource scarcity due to global warming, or an era of techno-autocratic governance. Maybe both together.If the poverty line were defined as "household income at the 20th percentile" this wish would be mathematically impossible.