Not even slightly true. Someone who makes $20,000 per year but has $0 in savings and zero assets is certainly more miserable than the average colonist 200 years ago.

Secondly, the top 1% of earners are multitudes times more "wealthy" than the richest people 200 years ago. They can literally fly around the world to anywhere in the world at any time they want. They can eat foods that ancient people cannot even imagine. They can literally buy time to a certain extent.

"Poverty" cannot be defined so simply.