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and income inequality has skyrocketed since then.

I agree with you that income inequality is a big problem, and it is a major cause of social discord, but to be fair, quality of life increased significantly across all percentiles since then.

e.g. which society is better to live in:

    (low inequality, less wealth)
    10th percentile average wealth: 100
    99th percentile average wealth: 1000
 
    (high inequality, more wealth)
    10th percentile average wealth: 1000
    99th percentile average wealth: 1000000

Of course this is an oversimplification, but you get the idea: income inequality is not the only important factor.

You have to consider purchasing power, not how much moneys you have in your wallet.

If the majority of people get 10x the money they used to, they're not getting 10x the purchasing power, because everyone needs a higher salary.

This is also an oversimplification. You can read more about the phenomenon here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease

Agreed. I intentionally didn't use units of my wealth numbers to indicate some "absolute" measure or wealth.

10x more food, land, or whatever.

Actually income inequality was highest in agricultural times (higher than today), and hit its bottom in 60s or 70s for the US/UK, well after industrialization. Life expectancy and health inequality is near all-time lows right now. Information/education inequality is also at all-time lows, with more people in college than ever, and near universal access to the internet. Entertainment inequality is at all time lows.

Just wanted to note that we're really not doing too badly with advancing technology. And if you measure actual poverty as compared to relative poverty, which makes more sense to me, we are doing even better. Have a nice day.

> Just wanted to note that we're really not doing too badly with advancing technology

Tell that to all the people who are doing badly? Jesus, it's like people look at some statistics that say the world is ok, and then continue in their totally ignorant life. The world is literally full of people who say it's not good enough.

How are you measuring that? If we're talking about the US, then housing, healthcare, and education are the three largest areas I've seen us regress in -- areas where inequality is at all-time highs.

Technology is advancing, and we're seeing lots of benefits from that -- I think everyone would agree. But advances in technology don't inherently translate into better quality of life. A $500 4K TV screen is amazing, but doesn't make up for the fact that a basic 2-bed apartment now costs $25,000/year. A $650 iPhone super-computer-in-your-pocket is fantastic, but doesn't make up for the fact that a 4-year degree now routinely runs $60,000 or higher.

Extending debt to cover up societies inequality doesn't actually solve inequality, it just hides from view how big of a problem the inequality has become.