Just picturing an alien archaeologist “so, as they stopped being crippled by polio or losing their lives building railroads, they complained about having to wash the dishes?”
I think it’s a matter of the difference between the quality of life one COULD have vs what they do have. A couple hundred years ago, even royalty died from diseases that are curable today. Society need 90% of people to be farm labor just to be able to provide for 9% military and 1% aristocracy. Today, we know we COULD have access to things that would substantially improve our quality of life, and could have those things without needing much human labor, but these things are being kept from us.
Maybe numbers to help me explain:
Hundreds of years ago you might have lived at a 1, but the best anyone could hope for was like a 3. Today, you might live at a 3, but everyone could be living at a 9. So it’s the difference between how we DO live, and how we COULD live that people complain about.
