Consider that many people today, who live better than the kings of centuries past, are depressed. One could conclude that happiness is a state of improvement ov

Consider that many people today, who live better than the kings of centuries past, are depressed. One could conclude that happiness is a state of improvement over past experiences, not necessarily an absolute scale. If this is true (and I personally believe that it is), then evil is in fact a necessary baseline against which happiness can be improved upon.