I think you are conflating two distinct concepts. Standard of living is not identical with the percentage of national income you have. The former could increase while the latter decreased, if the total amount of income increased. And that is exactly what has happened.

Or to get specific again, in the subset of society consisting of just me and Larry Page, my percentage of the total income has decreased dramatically. But my standard of living has not declined.

I totally agree and didn't mean to imply this. My point is that the median income level as an absolute, adjusted for inflation, has not increased significantly since 1970. I believe this does correlate fairly well to standard of living over the long term.

EDIT: Here's one source. Open to criticism. http://www.stanford.edu/class/polisci120a/immigration/Median...

[1]: http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/7487.html

It may be a moot point, since no one can objectively compare their standard of living to that of an equivalent person 40 years ago (or even themselves 40 years ago.)

Personally I'm fine with people who are superrich, if they have learned to be responsible with that money. OTOH I do want superwealth to be a little more transparent in its effects on my environment.

Little stars, big stars, are all fine by me. But I don't like'm black holes. They're eff'n scary.