What is Occupy Wallstreet?

[Jester]

Should we all just be happy because we have much better lives than cavemen?

Yes.

And also in communist societies the next generation would be on average better off than the previous.

Not really, no. Growth in centrally-planned economies has been practically stagnant since the 1950s. In many cases (North Korea, Cuba) the current generation is actually poorer than the last. "In Soviet Russia, money spend you!"

The moderate (though poor by western standards) growth in these economies translated very little into actual quality of life for ordinary workers, as an enormous share of that growth went towards non-consumer goods, mostly the military. Inequality in centrally planned economies was generally higher, not lower, than in the capitalist west, especially if one thinks of state assets as a separate entity, and not a public good.

Fact is just that psychology plays an incredibly big role in people's well-being. So your wealth compared to the average wealth of your peers is important. I mean take the rich guy that commits suicide because his company goes bankrupt. He would have still been able to have a good life (especially if he kept his private possessions separated) compared to people in most parts of the world but he apparently can't handle the psychological pressure.

You're right to foreground psychology, but I've yet to meet a society that has a solution to that particular problem - certainly no communist society ever came close to solving it.

As for the rich, suicidal guy, we are loss-averse. We do not gain as much happiness from making a million dollars as we lose from losing a million dollars. This probably means it is better to live in a society where some gains are traded for security against loss - and I believe in exactly that kind of policy, for exactly those reasons. But it is hardly an argument against the idea that wealth is good.

The 'we get better off an richer mantra' again is something mainly told by rich people.

It's also a tale told by economists. The reality is, people who are wealthier, are happier. The effect is smaller than we'd expect, and heavily influenced by other factors, notably our relative wealth in comparison to those around us. But, ceteris paribus, money and the things it buys us actually do make us considerably happier. (And healthier. And better educated. And more relaxed. And so on, and so forth.)

-Jester