I’m not a one-percenter and my life is great. I don’t even understand why anyone cares about equality. The point is a rising standard of life. Equality isn’t anywhere near my top objectives. Pareto-optimal trades are good. Adding an implicit objective to minimize abs(w_i - w_j) makes many win-win things impossible.
The coordination win that came from “thou shalt not covet” is substantial and we forget it at our own peril.
The coordination win that came from “thou shalt not covet” is substantial and we forget it at our own peril.