Life Gets Better

"Intellectuals and theorists have long expected, almost demanded, that average Americans would develop political antipathy toward the prosperous and vote to confiscate their wealth. Perhaps average Americans do not do this because they know they have spent the last several generations gaining on the well-to-do in significant ways. Whatever faults the United States and the European Union may have -- they are many -- in recent generations, both have methodically improved daily circumstances for almost everyone. The same social engine that in the United States and Western Europe is producing spoiled and insufferable billionaires is also producing steady, significant gains for the middle and for the poor."

Gregg Easterbrook, The Progress Paradox