12-02-2009, 02:16 PM
I call this the "Relativistic Environment Principle" -- basically what Maull said. If everyone in the country worked their butt off and became rich, we would still find something to bitch about. I'm poor because my mansion is only 18,000 square feet and plated in silver while my neighbor has 20,000 square feet and gold plating. "Poor" is simply relative to what other people have.
It reminds me again of that story about a documentary on poor people in America. The cold war era Soviets got a copy of it and aired it to their citizens to show that things were bad in the US but it actually made the people angry because they saw that even dirt poor Americans still had TVs, cars and were fat.
The quality of life of a poor person in America today is many times superior to the quality of life of a poor person in America in 1750 (and is certainly better right now than the life of a poor person in China) but we just find new things to bitch about. Used to be you were poor if you froze to death in the winter. Now you're poor if you have gas heat, indoor plumbing and a car, but it's not a very good car and you don't have health care coverage.
So I think the answer is that if everyone worked hard and got "rich", there would still be rich vs poor, but the average quality of life would be that much higher.
It reminds me again of that story about a documentary on poor people in America. The cold war era Soviets got a copy of it and aired it to their citizens to show that things were bad in the US but it actually made the people angry because they saw that even dirt poor Americans still had TVs, cars and were fat.
The quality of life of a poor person in America today is many times superior to the quality of life of a poor person in America in 1750 (and is certainly better right now than the life of a poor person in China) but we just find new things to bitch about. Used to be you were poor if you froze to death in the winter. Now you're poor if you have gas heat, indoor plumbing and a car, but it's not a very good car and you don't have health care coverage.
So I think the answer is that if everyone worked hard and got "rich", there would still be rich vs poor, but the average quality of life would be that much higher.