> People are better off in absolute terms, yes. That is incontrovertible.

That people are better off now than 15–20 years ago (see OP) is absolutely not obvious.

> What matters to the human psyche is relative well-being compared to one's peers.

Uh, see the Neoliberal shift that happened some decades ago. Things got worse. The rich got richer and the rest got poorer.

This isn’t some psyche thing for crying in the sink.