Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which 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.”
This is from “Notebooks of Lazarus Long” by Robert A. Heinlein, in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June 1973, p. 77.
Also Heinlein…
On the North River 
I was introduced to his stories when I was about 10. GREAT writer, great mind!
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People like Heinlein would be utterly persecuted and destroyed these days. There isn’t much the masses hate more than the truth…about the masses.
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Heinlein wouldn’t apologize. He wouldn’t back down. And his riposte’s would be deadly.
And he’d be playing poker with Rush Limbaugh.
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No…he wouldn’t give a rats ass what people thought of him. He wasn’t the most popular author when he was alive. But those in control would destroy him none the less.
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