Why Do We persist?

Why do we persist in calling ourselves enlightened when we have an economic system that has brought us so much pain? This system that has existed for thousands of years has given us slavery, indentured servitude, wage slavery, human trafficking just to mention a few of it's accomplishments. We think we have professed to have achieved so much, but other than better was to inflict pain on our fellow man what else have we achieved? There are videos of lost tribe's that show them sharing equally with less or non-productive members of their society. We have homelessness and starvation by the millions. We defend the economic system as progress, then call for someone else to fix the inequality of this broken system. Have we progressed or have we blinded ourselves to the truth?