> Subjectively, each person's relative economic position is at least as important as their absolute position.

That subjective need to be "better" than your neighbor is part of the reason we are all less happy even though we have much more than ever in absolute terms. I don't even think it's a "capitalist meme", in some sense it is a core tenet (and at times a major problem) with capitalism.

Bob Frank wrote a great book about this: http://www.amazon.com/Darwin-Economy-Liberty-Competition-Com...