I completely agree but some (most?) people tend to look at their quality of life on a relative basis.  How much better or worse off they are than others they see.  So despite the fact that there&#x27;s probably never been a better time to be poor in the US, there is increasing political pressure to narrow the wealth gap.  Someone told me once that he&#x27;d rather have pride than money and pride was what being on the wrong side of a large inequality gap slowly destroyed.