Any system with a market needs some kind of exchange token. The fiat paper money we are using is nothing more than that and having a universally accepted token

Any system with a market needs some kind of exchange token. The fiat paper money we are using is nothing more than that and having a universally accepted token is a desirable thing. I would argue that some inequality is not only necessary but maybe even desirable since it provides incentives to interact with the market. Since we want our - tamed - market to be efficient in resource distribution, we need to maximize its reach. > Those who own their means of production are typically more productive [..] I think you are on to something here. Ownership - especially close ownership - fosters a certain interest that the thing owned is put to good use. That can in many ways lead to increased productivity. I don't think that a state-enforced market would be a good thing, but a tamed market with players like the Mandragora Corporation - which is successful in the current "capitalistic"[0] market and refrains from corporate management excesses - I consider a viable alternative. (Not that I see how such a transformation could be pushed.) > Those who can organize other people can amass more productivity and therefore have more money. Or it is the people that have money have access to the means of organizing other people and the necessary liquidity to setup and maintain an initial structure to profit from other peoples productivity. (Another factor is the tight social circles that these moneyed groups form; elite universities are not as much elite because of the quality of their education but because of the familiarity it breeds between the scions of wealth.) Humans are - in general - thrifty and entrepreneurial and creative; given that they don't have to put their and their families' livelihoods at risk. That risk-taking ability seems to me to be one of the deciding factors why wealthy people get wealthier: Even the most ingenious business idea might fail. For a rich family at worst a good business lesson. For a poor family at worst a catastrophe. [0] Quotes because our current crony-capitalism looks more like neo-feudalism than anything else.