Living standards are important, sure. So are democratic standards, and rich people often subvert them. There has been a long, long tradition of that in the US t

Living standards are important, sure. So are democratic standards, and rich people often subvert them. There has been a long, long tradition of that in the US too, and everywhere else. Sponsoring their chosen politicians, being newspaper proprietors, often also being patrons of the arts and deciding what gets made and by whom. That amounts to cultural and political hegemony. Telling people to accept that is a little like telling them to know their place.