> In any case, the "wealth disparity" discussion is almost always badly anchored. The first thing to understand about wealth disparity is that it maps pretty much to wealth. More wealth, more wealth disparity... almost universally. Many or most people have no wealth, depending on your semantics of "wealth." Therefore, if the value/quantity of wealth rises, wealth disparity rises.

I agree with you but it remains a problematic point. The issue is the power imbalance it creates and outlines.

Because in and of itself, wealth is of little interest. Economy is first and foremost the study of exchanges. If the wealthy stayed amongst themselves with their wealth parked peacefully and little interaction with the rest of the system, you could pretend they didn’t exist and from the point of view of the economy experienced by the majority of the people that would mostly be true. That’s mostly what’s happening actually which is why people don’t riot.

It is both a blessing and a curse because as usual throughout history when an aristocracy arise, their main fear is that the general population realise they are not actually providing that much value and could be dispensed with. That’s why they use the power they own - the ability to put the system out of balance - to lobby in their favour, keep control of the political system and information apparatus in order to keep being able to extract value from the system.

From my point of view, we are in situation which has a lot to do with the Old Regime. Aristocrats used to explain that they could not be dispensed with because they had superior value and were needed to administer and guide while exploiting the collective labours of the population. Modern large shareholders and executives explain that they can’t be dispensed with due to their superior ability to manage and impart a strategy while exploiting the collective labour of their employees tolling for meager wages.