It also requires everyone to recognise that there is no universally accepted definition of a better life. We have been brain washed, for the last 200 years (by your own deefinition), into thinking that a better life is one filled with 'conveniencies' and 'stuff' most of which we do not need.

My current WIP concerns the Tudor period in Ireland, when English men and women arrived with the intention of creating better lives for themselves and those already here. The trouble was that the locals did not agree with the new arrivals' defintition of 'better'. I'm guessing the same was true at around the same time, and later, when European's came to colonise the Americas. It's time we redefined 'the good life' to fit something more sustainable than what we presently take for granted.