History Books Are Filled With Wealthy People

History books are filled with wealthy people who were practically destitute compared to me. I have triple-tracked storm windows; Croesus did not. Entire nations trembled before Alexander the Great, but he couldn’t buy cat food in bulk. Czar Nicholas II lacked a compound-miter saw. Given how much better off I am than so many famous dead people, you’d think I’d be content. The trouble is that, like most people, I compare my prosperity with that of living persons: neighbors, classmates, TV personalities. There is really no rising or falling standard of living. Over the centuries people simply find different stuff to feel grumpy about. (Reader’s Digest, July, 1996, p. 193).