> Poor people in the U.S. live better than kings did 200 years ago.
A wild exaggeration that tells me you don’t have much experience interacting with the poor.
The lives of the poor in the US may include things like electricity, refrigeration, air conditioning and modern communications, but in all other aspects of life there is no serious comparison to be made.
Queue Monty Python, “what have the Romans ever done for us” skit.
Those things make all the difference.
Makes clear poverty is a choice.