the good living standards that you refer to are extremely unequally distributed
The fact that the pie is not equally distributed is not contested. I simply remind that the pie is bigger than ever and, as a result, even the lower 50% are better off than their ancestors, better off than they would have been without the organizing power by which humans have made the earth provide more bountifully for a population that is 6.7 times what it was 100 years ago. Corporations have had a positive part to play in producing that bounty by which all benefit, albeit, disproportionately.

No doubt corporations have resulted in technological advances that have improved living standards, and that many people share in those improved living standards.
See, you openly agree with the gyst of what I am saying. You have come to acknowledge the good along with the bad, the pro's along with the cons. Good for you! The lower 50% are living better than ever!

But we have a situation in the world now where 2% of the population owns 50% of the wealth and where the bottom 50% of the world's population owns 1% of the world's wealth. So the improved standards of living you speak of probably don't apply to half the people in the world.
Not so. Even after the wealthiest 2% take their 50% cut off the top, there is still more than ever before for the remaining 98% to divide up, so much so that even the bottom 50% are experiencing a population explosion. Their numbers are growing precisely because: they have more food than ages past, they live longer lives than ages past, because they have better health care than ages past, they work less hours, less strenuously than ages past. So what about the upper 2%?? If you just tune them out and focus on what the bottom 50% have now compared to what they had in ages past, they are doing better than ever. Comparing the upper 2% to the bottom 50% is more an issue of greed v envy. I am simply saying to consider moving past that greed v envy mindset for a moment to be thankful that the bottom 50% has more now than they did in ages past. Some of this ongoing prospering of the bottom 50% is attributable to the benefits of organizing the labors of massive sums of people via corporations.

I have nothing against someone getting rich from honest productive activities which benefit everyone. But my point is that way too much of the world's wealth is confiscated through imperialistic activities -- in other words, violence and theft -- rather than created through honest productive activities.
I agree. I hate violence and theft. And I hate greed and envy. Any student of history can see that that farther back into history you go, the more per capita violence, theft, greed, envy, racism, slavery, genocide and cannibalism you get, (not just figurative). I just also point out that, despite the acknowledged improvements needed to the status quo, there is still a lot of good that has come of it. And we should be thankful for what we presently have while we work towards something better. We do not need to demonize our imperfect parents in order to succeed them. We do not need to demonize the present in order to work for a better future.


I do not agree that our major challenge is to overcome nature.
You seem to think it a small, marginal thing the advance of modern agriculture that produces harvests from exhausted soils that are 13 times more bountiful than harvests from virgin soil. Many, many studious people had to work pretty hard to overcome Nature to achieve that. Same could be said of modern medicines and vaccines and treatments, advances in hygiene and food distribution and housing. It should be remembered that hot & cold, disease & famine, hostile beasts & rugged terrain are all part of Nature. Many places that were largely threatening & uninhabitable by Nature are now places of thriving development because of modern energy, transportation, construction, heating and air conditioning, pest & disease control. Studious, hard-working people are overcoming the resistance of Nature itself to provide for greater life, 6.7 times the human population of just 100 years ago! Better fed, better clothed, better health, longer lives, better housing, more education, leisure, travel, etc., has resulted for the common person of the bottom 50% than all of history past. Just because these studious people lay low and quietly get the hard work done does not mean that the crooks are more influencial. Despite the crooks in high places and low, the common people the world over are gradually climbing to higher standards of living. The exceptions to this global trend are either regional or temporary. And the massive organizing of human effort via corporations is part of that success. There are a lot of good, studious, hard-working people whose labors are organized most effectively via corporations, despite some crooks that skim off a cut.

That's just the other side of this whole thing. One side of the coin does not have to be the enemy of the other side. Its just reality: coins have two legitimate sides. So do many issues. The peaceful, productive, non-radical progressive will keep that in mind.