Evidence? I think quite a lot of rich people are rich not because of an ability to create value, but an ability to extract cash. E.g., 95% of Wall Street's activity. And even those in the value-creating category often attribute much of their wealth to right-place, right-time luck rather than an unusually high ability to create value.
I think most people consider growth of their investments and savings "valuable".
>And even those in the value-creating category often attribute much of their wealth to right-place, right-time luck rather than an unusually high ability to create value
Irrelevant. Point is that the value has been created and thus so has their wealth.
The growth of investments mainly comes through the work of the people at the company invested in. There is little evidence that the people managing retail investments do more than add overhead. And managing retail investment is a pretty small part of what Wall Street does.
> Irrelevant. Point is that the value has been created and thus so has their wealth.
Entirely relevant. Those people didn't become rich because of their ability alone; it was ability plus luck. That means using wealth alone to imply virtue isn't very persuasive.