>Was it society's to begin with? Sure it does, in the sense that wealth only exists as a construct of society. If Bill Gates is on a deserted island it doesn't

>Was it society's to begin with? Sure it does, in the sense that wealth only exists as a construct of society. If Bill Gates is on a deserted island it doesn't matter if he has $1 or $60 billion, because without society his money has no value. One could make an argument that if society has made you very wealthy you owe a lot to society. Personally I don't disagree. Of course from there it gets messier because everyone has opinions about how wealth is earned, how beholden the earners are to everyone else, how much of personal success is solely based on an individual's merits as opposed to support from society and other external sources. People want to minimize or maximize the particular points best serve their beliefs in this case. Hard to say who is the rightiest.