I'm confused why you're treating large income inequality as prerequisite to general societal wealthiness. Rich people are, after all, by definition rich at the

I'm confused why you're treating large income inequality as prerequisite to general societal wealthiness. Rich people are, after all, by definition rich at the cost of the poorer people. Tanzania and Africa in general is a great example, actually. Colonial powers became and are still getting a lot more rich from it, very much at the cost of the future and health of the local population. The Wealth and excess of the west, even more so of the rich people in the west, would not be possible without child slaves mining for precious metals in Africa and workers driven to suicide in China.