I'll admit that money has less power than is has historically. I do think that things are better than they ever have been, and some of that is capitalism, some of that is "enlightenment" (democracy, rule of law stuff), some of that is industrialization, abundance from mining the "new world".

I get the sense that on the birds eye timeline, looking back to warlord or monarchy rule, we're still in the infancy of "figuring this all out" so when I hear people defend the status quo vehemently I can't help but be a little skeptical.