I was not talking about inequality in the specific situation of the past few decades in US history, but about inequality in general. And in general, inequality

I was not talking about inequality in the specific situation of the past few decades in US history, but about inequality in general. And in general, inequality really doesn't mean that, just from a mathematical standpoint. I can directly speak for Germany, and the points you mention just don't hold true. Our whole society improved, despite rising inequality, perceived and measured. For the US you cite particular measures. I'm not sure those are necessarily comprehensive and even if so, it's only a very tiny backslide, and also only for a relatively tiny percentage of the population. Also I'm looking more at the long term trends, and those are looking up, in general, all over the world. Including infant mortality (the absolute number of children dying declined for at least 50 years straight, despite more children being born up to relatively recently, see peak child phenomenon), life expectancy and absolute poverty. Individual wealth is not about the share of the total wealth in a society. At least for me it is about suffering, and the reasons for suffering are indeed decreasing. Maybe not for any time period and any country you choose, but overall, yes.