> if we added up all of the wages of everyone on the planet and redistributed them equally, the first worlder would be much much poorer than where they started off
This point of 'most people only want what benefits them' is very shallow.
You've set up the question for failure. You limited comparison to income, and to income just among labour class. If you actually setup the question correctly, you might find the results to be different.
Are we going to re-destribute capital gains? Most people in developed world earn zero from capital gains.
Are we going to re-distribute ownership of assets, shares, and land? Most people in developed world own zero land. Many have net worth of roughly zero.
Are we going to re-distribute taxation? Taxes in the first world are paid almost entirely by the middle class.
What about right to pollute, currently wealthy individuals have unlimited right to pollute, some take helicopter rides and jets to cut travel time by <1 hour or to avoid traffic.
> what capitalism has been doing for the past century
Capitalism has been dumping toxic waste from the west in developing nations, like used electronic and plastics. It has brought Opium addiction to China, British American Tabacco is selling to children in South America right now, Nestle has admitted to slavery in Thailand.
Western companies have bribed local officials, and hired death squads to kill local union leaders and environmental activists.
The leading countries to rise in the last 30 years, China and Singapore, have active, competent and interventionist governments.