Being Explicit: Both Decay and Progress are Impossible

 It can't get any better. It also can't get any worse.

 Net worth is 100% genetic. Fully genetic feature. You can have community and family, or you can have material wealth, but not both. You can have wisdom, or you can have fame, but not both. You can be happy, or you can live an easy life, but not both. These things all trade off with each other directly. You can choose the allocation, but never the grand total. If you want more of any of these things, you can only gain them by giving up some of something else.

 The Earth is populated by societies that cannot possibly be worse than they already are. You can have technology, or you can have religion, but not both. This is the nature of the Earthen Heaven. Everything is stagnant, because it has already hit rock bottom. Trying to make it worse inherently destroys either the person trying to make it worse, or destroys the society attempting to become worse. Result: worse societies cease to exist. Worse societies are logically impossible.

 This is your consolation prize. What you get in return for not being able to get better. 

 E.g. the Amish are very happy. And lead very harsh lives. E.g. they just let their kids die to disease. They can only be content because they're poor as fuck. 

 "We're so rich now, why can't we afford to be nice to the saturateds?" Exactly because you're rich, strife has to increase. All the stuff comes out of the budget for something else, such as getting along. Such as low crime. 

 The genius is 'crazy' i.e. antisocial. Yes, either he can spend time cultivating his genius, or his social skills, but not both. 

 The altruist has to be evil. They either spend time being rewarding and just to those who are good to them, or they spend time being good to those who are not good to them, but not both.

 It is often said that wisdom comes from poverty. In fact, it's the other way around. Wisdom uses up the net worth cap you might have otherwise used to get rich. Either you spend time learning instead of selling, or you learn that selling isn't worthwhile, so you don't do it. You can have truth, or you can have wealth, but not both. Wisdom causes poverty, not the reverse. The man who enters heaven goes through the eye of the needle due to the thing which caused him to be poor.
 Isn't the rich man in a heaven of his own? A heaven of gold, silks, and frankincense? Perhaps he feels this is a good trade. He could buy wisdom at any point, he simply doesn't like the cost, as it would indeed cost him all his gold. Do you know more about him than he does? Can you gainsay his decision? I certainly don't. I certainly can't.