Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances that permit this norm to be exceeded / here and there, now and then / are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as ‘bad luck.’ Robert A. Heinlein