It’s a subjective reality, not objective.
Some countries made possession of pearls by anyone without permission a capital crime. Others have only recently reduced criminal penalties for possessing cultured pearls.
In some regimes ownership of certain books- even in electronic form- could get you the death penalty.
Certain ultraconservative religious communities ban instruments of any kind.
If we lived in a conservative Amish theocracy, the smartphones and tablets I use to post on ENWorld & elsewhere, my car, and my electric appliances would all be outlawed.
Depending on who you are, any of those could fail your criteria of making people’s lives better.
Pearls are nice, but they don't generally make peoples' lives easier.
Sorry if I misunderstood. I was under the impression that you were making those claims about a democracy (or capitalistic democratic republic).
Sure, I agree the more repressive and/or ideologically motivated regimes might be extremely restrictive, at least initially.
My point was regarding relatively free societies, where things like conveniences carry significant weight. I mean lawmakers today could try to outlaw something like Facebook. Facebook would undoubtedly push back on the basis of free speech or the like, but more importantly can you imagine the millions of indignant Facebook users who would find themselves suddenly motivated to make certain that those lawmakers never saw office again?
Or if Facebook isn't your thing, imagine if lawmakers tried to outlaw automobiles. Dangerous, game changing, and arguably not good for the environment. It would be tantamount to political suicide. There are few politicians who'd be stupid enough to even attempt it, irrespective of their personal feelings on the matter.
The way I see it, in this world it is far more likely that some tech mogul or engineer gets their hands on magic before the government and finds that they have a huge leg up on the competition. By the time the government realizes what's going on and tries to legislate, magi-tech is probably already an everyday convenience for hundreds of thousands or even millions of consumers. Good luck taking that away from them. MAYBE if the government can conduct a successful enough smear campaign claiming that those products are dangerous, but against a tech giant that could easily blow up in the government's face.
