You're right - such massive population interventions (for the better) have little precedent, so there may be some consequences that we're unaware of.<p>But I think you can improve lifestyle in two ways -- increase income like you mentioned, or decrease costs.  It's possible for technology to bring costs down.  And when costs come down, a $100 income can buy the lifestyle  that $300 used to.  So even if you depress wages, you can still win by depressing costs even further through technology.