Comment by jorvi

Your problem stems from assuming our natural state is some Star Trek utopia, and only our distraction by paraphernalia is preventing us from reaching such a place. Like we are temporarily (temporally?) embarrassed ascended beings.

Humanity’s natural state is abject poverty and strife. Look at any wealth graph of human history and note how people are destitute right up until the Industrial Revolution, and then the graph explodes upward.

In a way we (well, especially the West) are already living in utopia. You’re completely right that we can still vastly improve, but look back at the progress we already made!