You are out of touch with reality.
"The poorest still have a much better quality of life". Are you kidding me?
People living on the streets are in a much worse place than even the most ancient peoples were. They're worse off than most animals living in the wild in fact.
Also that's an obviously false dichotomy. I reject both your premises and conceived outcomes.
We could just as likely have exactly the same standard of living we have now, only less corruption and more invention.
Thereby creating a better standard of living.