[storm]

I will comment briefly on the correlation vs causation points.

Tell me, do you think that one can have a large wealthy middle class and also a functional monarchy?

Does it seem reasonable to you that if the middle class is wealthy we will see them insist on more political power?

Ultimately wealth = political power. All of those factors health, happiness, etc. are monotonically increasing functions of wealth in the strict sense. Such a necessary and sufficient correlation does actually imply causation.

I am saying money buys happiness. And that happiness means you are rich. It goes without saying that I am speaking in the sense of statistical distributions but I mention it here for other readers.

if you are as rich as the monarch no way you will let him call the shots.

For this reason you have seen "American democracy" turn into "Trump vs the establishment" in recent years. Look only to wealth disparity.

The reverse is also true. Calling for monarchy = calling for a disproportionately wealthy center, which necessarily impoverishes, which necessarily decreases health, life, etc.

Let me know if you see any difficulty in such an argument.

Clarifying my point on virtue.

One could argue that then men will be more virtuous because their life will have more suffering. But we have seen this cycle pass since the ancient times. Can we not find some way to fix the internal human problem of " comfort => degeneracy " without impoverishing everyone? Can we not be happy, wealthy, powerful, etc. and ALSO virtuous?

Namely. The relationship poverty ~ virtue is a fact of the human condition. How do we change this internally, so that we may have both wealth and virtue?