> Even as the gap between the rich and everyone else widens, the quality of life for the bottom 99 percent has vastly changed since 1928. >> This makes me wonde

> Even as the gap between the rich and everyone else widens, the quality of life for the bottom 99 percent has vastly changed since 1928. >> This makes me wonder how much people care. People do care, because their year of comparison isn't 1928, because most weren't alive at that time. Rather they compare it with the long post-WWII period of growth that they or their parents grew up in, when basic goods and services like housing, education, and health care became affordable for the working class. People don't feel grateful that polio isn't prevalent today because they don't see anyone with it anymore - it's baked (justifiably, IMO) into the expectations-cake in the developed world. However, they do see that it's harder to afford the basics, and also some of the luxuries of life (i.e. the boat and cabin by the lake). Cheaply available entertainment and computing power is cold comfort when you are struggling to pay your mortgage/rent, your out-of-pocket medical costs, or for your childrens' education. EDIT: I would add that I also recognize that the post WWII social contract wasn't (and still isn't) available to large sections of the population.