Your rent might be brutal, groceries might be painful, and your phone battery definitely dies at the worst possible moment. But Warren Buffett has a perspective that might make you feel differently about your financial situation. According to the Oracle of Omaha, if you're living in America today, even at the absolute bottom of the income ladder, you've got it better than the richest person who ever lived.
Not metaphorically better. Actually, genuinely, materially better.
In a 2022 conversation with journalist Charlie Rose, Buffett laid out his case: "More people, a greater percentage of the American population, are having more income now than they've ever had." He wasn't claiming everyone's wealthy. Far from it. But the country as a whole? Richer than at any point in history.
To illustrate just how far things have come, he pointed to John D. Rockefeller.
The Man Who Had Everything Money Could Buy
"Right today… you live in an environment where the bottom 2% in terms of income in the United States, the bottom 5%, and for sure the top 1%, all live better than John D. Rockefeller was living."
We're talking about the John D. Rockefeller. The man who built Standard Oil into such a dominant monopoly that the Supreme Court literally had to break it apart. His fortune, when adjusted for share of GDP, clocks in somewhere between $400 billion and $500 billion in today's money. He had staff, yachts, private railcars, and more wealth than most people can conceptualize.
So how on earth could someone in the bottom 2% of earners possibly live better than that?
What Money Can't Buy When It Hasn't Been Invented Yet
Buffett's answer is beautifully simple: "Today you can get better medicine, better education, better entertainment, better transportation — you can do everything better than he could… It's astounding."
He's not exaggerating. Rockefeller didn't have antibiotics. A simple infection could kill him. He couldn't fly anywhere. Coast-to-coast travel meant days on a train. And dental work? Forget about it. "When I was born," Buffett said, "the dentist didn't use novocaine." Even a routine cavity was an ordeal, no matter how many zeros were in your bank account.
Rockefeller could commission private railcars, sure. But today, according to Buffett, nearly everyone has access to travel and digital entertainment. "Maybe everybody doesn't have a screen as big as mine, but damn near everybody has a screen, or an iPhone, or a computer, or access to one."
How Capitalism Spreads the Goods
Buffett acknowledged that innovators like Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison created massive personal fortunes. But he sees their real contribution differently. "Henry Ford, by 1922 or '23, was turning out 2 million cars a year. Now how many could the Ford family use? Thirty, forty? I don't know. So two million people are getting the benefit of what he's doing."
He continued: "When Thomas Edison did all the things he did… he made some money. But we're better. We're using it. It belongs to us."
That's how Buffett views capitalism's long game. A small number of people might accumulate staggering wealth, but the innovations they create eventually reach everyone. Cars, electricity, medicine, smartphones — these all started as luxuries and became universal. He thinks of money as "claim checks on future output" and made it clear that for someone at his level, more money doesn't mean much personally.
"I have everything I want in life, you know, everything."
The Floor Has Risen
Buffett isn't saying poverty doesn't exist or that everyone has equal opportunity. He's not claiming financial stress isn't real or that struggling to pay bills feels good. His point is narrower and more specific: the baseline standard of living in America has risen dramatically.
Rockefeller's era had no modern medicine, no antibiotics, no air conditioning, no smartphones, no safety regulations, no instant global communication. Money simply could not purchase what technology had not yet created. You couldn't buy your way into a world that didn't exist.
Buffett sees this as progress worth acknowledging. "It's astounding what has happened" in just one lifetime, he said. And he believes the trend will continue. "Business moves forward. Government moves forward. More important, people move forward."
The richest American in history couldn't watch a football replay. He couldn't hop on a plane to Paris. He couldn't numb his mouth at the dentist. Today, the poorest 2% can do all of those things. That's Buffett's entire argument.
Money Versus Access
Feeling financially stretched is absolutely real. Frustration with prices and wages is legitimate. But Buffett wants people to recognize the world of capability that surrounds even those with the smallest incomes in the United States. His definition of wealth isn't just about dollars in the bank. It's about access, comfort, convenience, and the quality of life itself.
Those are things even Rockefeller, with all his billions, could never buy.