# A debate on where America was before Trump. Were we really in decline? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 22, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-debate-on-where-america-was-before-trump-were-we-really-in-decline/928648 "2020-12-22T14:56:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 47
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2020, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-debate-on-where-america-was-before-trump-were-we-really-in-decline/928648/47 "2020-12-25T17:25:56Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Someone else becoming better off faster than the rest of us says nothing about the rest of us being in decline. > [@Ruken](#): > > And again, inequality doesn’t mean people are worse off. A society can become more equal with most people worse off, or less equal with more people better off. I used to think like this. One of the ways my thinking has changed over the years is that I have come to the conclusion that increasing wealth disparity, in and of itself, is a bad and dangerous thing. It’s reasonable (if naive) to believe that, as long as everyone’s doing better than they themselves used to be, that’s all that matters; and for the poor or middle class, if they have as much or more than they always have, to complain that the rich are getting richer is just class envy. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can explain why this is wrong, or what caused me to change my mind, without doing a bunch of research. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-debate-on-where-america-was-before-trump-were-we-really-in-decline/928648)._