There's always someone who shows up to say that. I bet there's been one of you every time society advanced. "Historically, having clean water a recent development, and they don't even have access to clean water in other countries!"

Same energy as "eat your vegetables, there are starving children somewhere." And equally useful as a statement when trying to force me to swallow something I despise.

Okay, that doesn't change the fact that a lot of wealth has been vacuumed out of 90 percent of the country. Even the 90-99 percentile just managed to hold their ground with all of those gains going to the top 1 percent.

Edit to Add - I wouldn't be against encouraging multi-generational housing again. But the wealth loss is still there.

I think it was a good advancement in society though (aside from suburban sprawl). Having each generation go out and experience life away from where they grew up fosters empathy and understanding through exposure. We should be striving for more of that.

Part of that was driven by specialization and people having different jobs and jobs in different locations than their parents though.