> The basic position - and I think the data supports this - is that it really doesn't matter what the top 1% are doing so long as the bottom half are seeing improved living conditions.
This is whataboutism and justifying means to ends and it makes no sense to me. How could this be? Many of the top 1% in our world are murderers and killers and so greedy they are set out to hurt the poor as much as possible. This matters. It does matter who they are. Their character matters. Their actions matter. Their words matter. Due in part to their wealth, the world listens to them for better or worse, and they hold a responsibility that the current 1% batch (and perhaps none in history, I don't know) are not holding up.
Yes, overall the poor are seeing vastly improved living conditions. This does not mean that it should not be better. It is offensive to a population to tell them that they have it better than before and to basically not worry about it or complain that the inequality is so intense, because their parents or even ancestors had it worse.
No, the attitude should be that it is still really bad for a lot of people, and that state of affairs should be unacceptable. That much human suffering is unnecessary. It should not be happening in a world of surplus like today's.
The top 1% matter immensely - who they are, what they do, how they act.