Historically, the wealthy do not create many things. When not funding wars (which do advance knowledge, btw) or accumulating capital, they use their disposable

Historically, the wealthy do not create many things. When not funding wars (which do advance knowledge, btw) or accumulating capital, they use their disposable income to fund intellectual things (which can be science) and art and the crafting of luxury goods. But, they're generally not inventors. Why would they be? They already have the lush lifestyle. And, while it's fun to think about things, invention requires a lot of work and grit and getting dirty. But, worse - invention makes you look like a weirdo to your peers, who would prefer things stay in stasis. So, the inventors usually come from the middle classes. Historically, middle classes are formed when there are unexpected population booms (because usually, more population means more production). And, during these times, there's a short window of time when production exceeds consumption. And, when that happens, there's room for excess production to go toward invention. If it is all timed right, the invention period can produce excess growth which can create more invention, etc. But, naturally, Human systems fall back to wealth inequality, because that's a stable equilibrium. Now, it's going to be very unexpected if we have another population boom anytime soon since we're moving more toward population plateau. And, at 7.35 billion people, we'd need the world to quickly support a couple billion more. But, another big, apocalyptic war could happen or maybe disease, in which case there would be a subsequent imbalance in production and consumption. Otherwise, things will kind of reach the equilibrium point and stay there for a long time. Basic income is cool (in my mind), because it frees up large portions of the population to invent new stuff. There's currently a very short window of opportunity for basic income (or something similar), because most elite are (naturally) against it. But, another alternative, maybe, could be if all the billionaires of the world suddenly realize that they're all going to die soon and they collectively decide to continue on this earth for a lot longer (since many don't believe in God anyway). In that case, they could dump most of their capital in life-extending inventions, and that could keep things going for longer. (The cynic in me has always wondered if that's partly what billg is doing with all his humanitarian stuff - save a few billion people, get the smartest of them into becoming inventors, and as a side-effect get (virtual) immortality.)