Having less income might mean being poorer but does not mean being less well-off.
Poor people can have healthier ways of life.
Quality of life can improve with less income, if income increases through means that reduce control over time, land, labor, and decision-making. Example of subsistence farmer and ecological adaptation versus vulnerability of income worker or corporate farm. Poor landowner versus better off family with no direct entitlement. Growth oriented policies of economic development are based on assumption that more income improves standards of living for everyone in the population. The first part of this assumption may be as untrue as the second.