&gt; And now you&#x27;re moving the discussion between having KNOWLEDGE, and having TECHNOLOGY. Those are, in fact, different things.<p>That is, in a nutshell, the difference between 20 years ago and today. They used to be different. Now they are not. Having the technology eventually exposes you to the knowledge. Knowledge now is completely free if you live in the US, because of free access to technology. Between Wikipedia, Craigslist, various social media outlets, there is no way you can be on the Internet today and not find what you are looking for, if it&#x27;s important to you, eventually. Very much not the case in the 90s.<p>This has a direct effect on the experience of being poor.<p>&gt; Is he really THAT much better off with an XBox One today?<p>Yes, because society was that much worse 20 years ago. What you were escaping was that much more awful.<p>&gt; Rich in 1995 ain&#x27;t too shabby. In fact, I&#x27;d say it&#x27;s much better than poor in 2015.<p>I would rather be 30 and poor today, than 30 and rich in the 80s. You may disagree, but I was not very well off not that many years ago, and I was able to leapfrog what would have been decades of hustling to get where I am now, because of advantages that I wouldn&#x27;t have had 30 years ago.<p>You&#x27;re right, 30 and rich in the 80s isn&#x27;t too shabby. But that would mean that I would have 30 fewer years of life in today&#x27;s world. You&#x27;re completely discounting the value of time and over-valuing money. 30 years is an unimaginably enormous amount of time. I can get 100x the value of my time out of a year here than I could have with any amount of resources in the 80s. If I chose to be 30 and rich in 1985, that means I would be in my sixties today. Being young in today&#x27;s world is worth, to me, any amount of money you can name.<p>I&#x27;m reminded of the fact that things we find totally boring today were fine luxuries in the Middle Ages. Chairs were the domain of the medieval super-rich at one point in time. The conversation we are having right now likely could not have existed 30 years ago.