[glennonymous]

Oh come on. Surely you can think of a few things other than iPhones and malaria medicine we have, that were completely unavailable to kings and queens of old. (Although “smart phones” admittedly encompasses a LOT of things.) How about air conditioning and central heating? Modern dentistry and medicine of all sorts? Refrigeration? Air travel? The light bulb? A much better than king-sized variety of entertainment options on demand? Indoor plumbing, for God’s sake?

[jahewson]

Hey, the Romans had central heating https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocaust

[Schroedingersat]

Other than the entertainment one, substantially less than 90% of people have access to those. Even for the entertainment part, lords and kings had plenty of options (like not woeking 12 to 16 hour days).

But moreover they (and many lower stations) had security, free time, and a lack of precarity that is unavailable to roughly 90% of the population today. This is worth far more than better circuises and ranks about as highly as things like medicine and refrigeration.

[Firmwarrior]

I have all sorts of great stuff, although to be fair, like many of the other commenters here I'm in the top income percentile of the most powerful country on the planet today

What about the people living horrible lives out in rural India or Africa, though? I think they fall under the 90% of people that the comment above was talking about