I think absolute standard of living rising faster is a hypothesis that has not been proven. If I "grow the pie" by $999 and give you only $1 of that growth, wha

I think absolute standard of living rising faster is a hypothesis that has not been proven. If I "grow the pie" by $999 and give you only $1 of that growth, what you will find is that merchants are now charging $2 for the same goods as before because they will find people willing to pay that price. This didn't work out well for you, the $1-receiver (and the question then becomes whether the $1 receiver looks like most of the population or the minority of the population). In short: in capitalism, sitting still means sliding backwards if the economy is growing. Incidentally, "Reducing economic equality is merely a lesser form of eliminating it" is also an unproven hypothesis if you're speaking about effects. If you're not speaking about effects, then my response would be "A small amount of elimination may bring benefit where a larger amount would bring ruin."