In the U.S. this has become somewhat of a zero-sum game, with the economic advantages held by the wealthy so stark and potent that they hoover up the wealth that could have lifted our working poor and generationally poor into the middle class. Given environmental constraints there's a limit to our capacity to create wealth, and given the vast degree to which that wealth is monopolized by a very few, our ability to create the decent standard of living and the appropriate work/life balance for the many is currently crippled.