[LinusKS]

You're making the mistake of treating wealth as if it were an objective, rather than a relative measure.

It really doesn't matter whether the kings and queens were poorer than the janitor in terms of colot TVs and Ipods; because the kings and queens were not acquainted with the janitor. Their point of reference was to the people over whom they ruled.

Similarly, it doesn't matter if a janitor is richer than the monarchs. He's not comparing himself to the kings and queens. He's point of reference is to the people whose toilets he cleans. If he's poorer then them (which is what it means to clean their toilets), then he's poor. Regardless of the queens and kings.

To put it differently, the rich need the poor; without the poor, they cannot exist. The poor, on the other hand, having nothing to lose but their chains.